Korea Becoming World-Class in Forensic Science

In "Memory of Murder," a 2003 film based on true stories of serial murders in the 1980s, Korea doesn't have a forensic science facility and detectives end up sending a DNA sample to the U.S. To the disappointment of the audience, they fail to catch the brutal murderer.

Chung Hee-sun,
Director General of National Institute of Scientific Investigation

By Kim Da-ye
Contributing Writer

In "Memory of Murder," a 2003 film based on true stories of serial murders in the 1980s, Korea doesn't have a forensic science facility and detectives end up sending a DNA sample to the U.S. To the disappointment of the audience, they fail to catch the brutal murderer.

Two decades later in 2009, serial killer Kang Ho-soon confessed to the killing of a housewife when a nanogram (one billionth of a gram) of the victim's DNA was found on Kang's jacket by forensic scientists.

The stark comparison shows Korea's startling progress in forensic science. The country is now ahead of other Asian nations in this field. The National Institute of Scientific Investigation (NISI) is planning to "export" knowhow to the other countries, its first female director general Chung Hee-sun said in an interview with The Korea Times.

Part of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the institute is rated in the world's top tier in narcotics analysis, in which Chung specializes. In 2001, the Narcotic Analysis Division was designated by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as a reference laboratory for seized material. Chung says NISI's drug test results are used as reference materials for the UNODC's quality assurance program, which assesses work by national drug testing laboratories. There are about 10 such designated laboratories around the world, according to Chung.

Korea's forensic science technology is now being upgraded on the back of the country's strong information technology. The institute is now creating an integrated narcotics information system with computerized testing processes.

For instance, NISI's clients, including the police and prosecutors, send urine samples which are screened for traces of drugs within two hours of receipt. After the preliminary test, text messages with passwords are sent to the clients, and they can gain access to the results on the Internet and print them out immediately. The system is designed to help clients save time. Without an arrest warrant, police cannot detain suspects beyond 48 hours.

The institute is also at the cutting-edge when it comes to narcotics profiling systems - a database of drug profiles. Scientists analyze impurities and other foreign materials in seized drugs, find information such as the drugs' country of origin and store it in the database.

Profiling drugs is crucial for large-scale investigations, but is a tough challenge, according to Chung. Korean-made methamphetamine tends to have a high level of "purity" making it difficult to distinguish, despite recent progress, Chung says.

NISI has attracted the attention of foreign scientists. Last November, the institute trained three Vietnamese officers for a month. NISI also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) in 2008 to share information on forensic methods. Chung says the NFI was particularly interested in how its Korean counterpart manages DNA analysis in two weeks while it takes them three months.

Chung regards such collaboration as "very important" for NISI's goal of becoming "world-class." "I believe that in order to become world-class, an institution should be able to lead other nations. So who do we want to lead? Perhaps Asian countries," said Chung.

Part of her plan is to cooperate with various Asian countries through the training of forensic scientists. "Let's train foreign scientists with our methods. Without much effort, our standards will naturally become theirs."

Chung wants to have NISI's experimental methods standardized. "We should evaluate ourselves objectively, not subjectively. Having the system internationally accepted is very important for us. Many of our methods have received international accreditations. My aim is to have all our methods accredited."

Appointed to the post in 2008, the 54-year-old has proven many times no goal is too high. She has worked at the institute for more than 30 years and investigated landmark cases that have grabbed national headlines.

Chung was, in fact, a member of the team that developed a method for confirming and quantifying methamphetamine through hair samples. Methamphetamine ― better known as philopon or hiroppon in Korea ― is the most common, popularly used drug type in Korea. In January, 577 grams of the drug were seized by police, compared to 50 grams of heroin and no cocaine, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

When her team visited the U.S. in the 80's, her Western counterparts were developing a method to extract traces of cocaine from hair samples. When she returned to Korea, she began research on a hair drug test for methamphetamine and successfully published her studies in 1993.

In 1995 when pop singer Kim Sung-jae died with his arms riddled with needle marks, Chung found he had died from an animal tranquilizer, not narcotics.

Rather than be satisfied with her achievements, the director general is looking into the future of forensic science. The institute is investing in CCTV analysis for improved verification of perpetrators' faces. NISI scientists, Chung says, are now developing techniques for sharpening dark, blurry images and drawing a full face from images showing a suspect's masked face. In addition, in the field of computer forensics, scientists are attempting to recover evidence from computers or mobiles phones whose memory has been wiped by suspects.

A more traditional method is also getting an upgrade. Using CT and MRI scans in autopsies is of great interest to forensic scientists across Asia, says Chung. For more reliable results, Chung wants to implement preliminary autopsies using CT and MRI, so she has planned cooperative research with institutes from the Netherlands and Taiwan.

NISI will celebrate its 55th anniversary on March 25, a "very meaningful" date to Chung. She looks back on the last 30 years at NISI and marvels at the change. For example in 1995, she says, a DNA sample could identify a suspect from a pool of about one million. This means a sample could lead to some 50 suspects in Korea, whose population is over 50 million. But now, a sample can pinpoint a perpetrator from among everybody on Earth.

She says that NISI needs more equipment to match the rapidly changing world of crime, and that its doctors need a pay raise.

Most importantly, Chung wants more recognition among the public for its role. "The more people love our institute, the more energy we will get," she said.

kimdaye@hotmail.com