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| A helicopter fights a fire after an enormous explosion at Beirut's port in Lebanon on August 4. AFP-Yonhap |
By Ko Dong-hwan
Ulsan city council has revealed that 18 firms in the Korean port city have ammonium nitrate, the controversial chemical that caused the huge explosion in Beirut earlier this month.
Most of them provide delivery as their main service, according to the city in the country's southeastern region on Wednesday. The firms were approved by the national Chemicals Control Act to have the chemical for business purposes as of March.
The city, however, did not reveal the amount stored because the information is confidential and linked to the anti-terror center under the Prime Minister's office.
Ulsan was second in the country in terms of chemical distribution ― according to data released in 2016 by the National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICS) under the Ministry of Environment ― with over 1.5 million tons a year (27 percent of the total). South Jeolla Province led the list, recording 33 percent.
NICS data from 2017 showed that Ulsan generated the country's third-most chemical emissions, with over 6,800 tons, or 12 percent. The city was behind Gyeonggi Province (27 percent) and South Gyeongsang Province (13 percent).
According to the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM), citing the NICS's 2016 data, some 2.23 million tons of ammonium nitrate were distributed in Korea annually, with 121 local companies making or importing the chemical.
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| Ulsan's petrochemical complex. Courtesy of Ulsan city government |
Ammonium nitrate is believed to have caused the 2004 explosion at Yongchon station in North Korea that injured 1,200 people. The chemical was also used in a homemade explosive at the entrance to Daegu Civic Stadium in 2001 that injured two.
About 2,750 tons of the chemical stored at a warehouse in Beirut was detonated when fireworks caught fire on Aug. 4. The explosion, considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was heard up to 250 kilometers away in Cyprus. At least 177 people died and 6,000 were injured.
Following the accident in the Lebanese capital, there were calls in Korea that information about chemicals being handled in the industrial complexes in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, and Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, and the petrochemical industrial complex in Ulsan should be readily available.
There are 723 companies in Ulsan that were approved by the environment ministry to handle hazardous chemicals.
Even after chemicals used in Korea's local industrial sites were officially tallied under the Chemicals Control Act in 2014, some 100 or more accidents related to them have been occurring annually, KFEM said.
