Seoul joins hands with Asian partners over waste

Tons of garbage piles up on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao after being illegally shipped. Courtesy of Greenpeace

South Korea's customs agency has set up a temporary task force, with China, the Philippines and other regional partners, to crack down illegal shipments of waste, an official said Monday.

Participants plan to discuss ways to effectively deal with cases of transboundary movements of waste at an Operational Control Unit in southern Seoul, said Woo Je-guk, an official handling the issue at the official of the Korea Customs Service.

Delegations from Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam took part in a joint campaign that is set to end on Friday.

South Korea plans to inform seven other countries and international organizations ― Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, India, Japan, Maldives and Singapore, as well as the U.N. Environment Program and the Secretariat of the Basel Convention ― of the results of this week's meetings as part of regional efforts to combat illegal shipments of waste, Woo said.

The Basel Convention, a multilateral environmental agreement that went into force in 1992, is meant to combat, among other things, toxic trade. (Yonhap)