Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Worries continue over hundreds of suspicious international parcels
Firefighters and soldiers enter a post office in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, after receiving a report about a suspicious parcel found there, Sunday. Yonhap
By Jung Min-ho
Presidential office holds meeting with police, spy agency amid ongoing investigation
By Jung Min-ho
Concerns about possible terrorist acts using chemicals continued over the weekend amid an investigation into suspicious international packages delivered to hundreds of seemingly unrelated Korean addresses.
In a message to the public, police warned against opening the parcels labeled with “CHUNGHWA POST,” as they could contain toxic materials. So far, more than 640 such packages sent via Taiwan were confirmed to have been delivered to addresses across the nation including Jeju Island since Thursday. Police said all of them are now under scrutiny.
An X-ray scan raised an alarm early Sunday over a potentially harmful gas inside a package delivered to a home in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. But after an additional inspection, police later said they found no such gas.
The mysterious parcels have stoked fear and confusion since last Thursday when three staffers at a care center for the disabled in Ulsan said they experienced dizziness and difficulty breathing after opening one. The Agency for Defense Development, a government agency for research and development in defense technology, later concluded that there was nothing unusual in the box.
The next day, a similar parcel sent to the Seoul Central Post Office in downtown Seoul prompted 1,700 people in that building to evacuate until they were told it was safe to return.
Such boxes were found to be empty or contain cheap commercial products such as lip balm, police said.
A firefighter picks up a suspicious international package delivered to a home in Busan, Saturday. Yonhap
According to the Taipei Mission in Seoul, its investigation found that the Ulsan package was sent originally from China and transshipped to South Korea by Chunghwa Post, Taiwan's postal service, after a stopover there. Given that most such parcels contain the same sender information ― “P.O. Box 100561-003777, Taipei Taiwan” ― it is possible that they came from the same source in China.
“We have shared our investigation results with the Korean police and other authorities,” the mission office said in a statement. “Related government departments in both countries have been in close contact for cooperation.”
To address rising concerns in both Korea and Taiwan, principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo held an emergency meeting of the National Security Office with representatives of the police, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Intelligence Service among other state agencies.
The foreign ministry said later in the day that it asked its Chinese counterpart to cooperate in the investigation as the parcels are believed to have been sent from China to Korea via Taiwan, adding the Chinese side agreed to do so.
This photo provided by the Incheon fire department shows a suspicious package delivered to a home in the city, Friday. Yonhap
The move comes a day after the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea denounced the Yoon Suk Yeol administration over its inaction regarding the incident.
“At a time when fears are mounting and spreading fast, authorities have done nothing other than sending notifications warning against opening such packages,” DPK spokesman Rep. Park Sung-joon said in a statement. “The Yoon administration's lackadaisical response has worried me that the country could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks from criminal organizations or other such people with ill intentions.”
Some security experts have raised the possibility that scammers may be behind the mystery, such as a “brushing scam” which refers to online retailers sending unsolicited goods to random people as a means of generating positive reviews or boosting their online presence.
The scam itself might seem harmless to the receivers, but it could mean their personal data has been compromised and will be used for other scams in the future, the experts warned.