Auditor Slams Mishandling of Materials to NK
By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Unification came under fire Wednesday for its lax monitoring of strategic materials that may have entered North Korea and could be used to manufacture weapons of mass destruction.
Strategic materials refer to equipment or technology used to make nuclear or biological weapons or missiles that are banned from being transported to the Stalinist country.
Last year, the ministry allowed South Korean firms to take more than 2,000 computers to the North for business purposes without taking enough security measures, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the state auditor.
Firms can take computers to the North on condition that they recall them within a year. The computers can be used in the country again only after the ministry runs security checks.
However, it failed to follow the rule, the auditor charged, demanding that it discipline related officials and tighten monitoring.
``An audit showed ministry officials who are in charge of management of South Korean materials in the North did not even know where the computers are,'' a BAI spokesman said. ``The ministry's lax monitoring on materials that can be used to manufacture weapons not only poses a serious threat to national security, but also is not helpful for the South's cooperation projects with the North.''
The ministry also failed to check packages of black powder, an explosive mixture of sulfur, that were transported into North Korea by a local firm last year, the agency said, though it could not say whether the powder was a strategic material.
The agency also found that 270 used computers were exported to North Korea in possible violation of the law. The computers were initially destined for China, but their owner changed the destination to North Korea without getting permission from the government.
In a statement, the ministry admitted its fault and said it will prepare a manual to keep track of materials transported to the North by South Korean businesses.