Police fail to find how diesel got into soju

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Police said Monday they failed to find out how tiny traces of diesel got into eight bottles of soju at a restaurant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province last month, intensifying public concern over the safety of the popular Korean spirit.

Announcing the interim result of an investigation, Cheongnam Police Station, Cheongju, ruled out the possibility of diesel getting into the bottles in the manufacturing process.

The announcement came after police said that diesel was detected in eight bottles of Chamisul soju made by Hite-Jinro, citing the result of testing by the National Forensic Service.

A police officer from Cheungnam Police Station in Cheongju told reporters that police scrutinized the entire manufacturing process, from the recycling of bottles to washing them and filling them with the alcohol beverage.

“We concluded that the manufacturing process was not responsible for the injection of traces of diesel into the bottles of Chamisul soju,” said the officer.

He said police will continue to investigate to find out how the contaminant got into the bottles.

The case was brought to police in March after a customer thought he tasted the fuel while drinking soju at a restaurant in Cheungju. Police sent 15 bottles of soju from the restaurant to the National Forensic Service (NFS) to find if there was contamination.

The NFS contained eight bottles had tiny traces of diesel. There were no reports of illness at the restaurant.

The owner of the restaurant said he bought 30 bottles of soju from a wholesaler the day before the incident, and that there had been no problem before. Hite-Jinro is one of the nation’s two biggest liquor companies along with Oriental Brewery.