The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (Agency Chief Nam In-suk) of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy implemented a program to prevent safety accidents caused by flawed products and make people’s daily lives more secure, titled Aftercare for Distributed Products 2009. “There will be a crackdown on industrial products and electronic appliances on sale in markets,” they announced.
In this plan the agency will directly buy 3,000 goods, from a total of 116 different items currently on the market, and test whether they meet safety standards. If they do not pass the tests, the agency will cancel their safety certification and command them not to sell, and confiscate the goods. Through these strong administrative acts the agency intends to cut those flawed products out of the market altogether.
The agency will divide the investigation subjects into four levels - Special Control, Intensive Control, Generous Control, and Selective Control - by a ratio of incongruities and the number of consumer complaints. Then it will enforce custom regulations on each of the four levels.
The agency will examine Special Control items like airsoft guns, baby walkers, electric mats, electric cushions, and others which are being sold in markets and investigate actual condition of distribution. If needed, they will especially investigate the factories themselves.
Eighteen Intensive Control items which include baby carriages, cribs, electric curling irons, and electric sterilizers will be examined every six months. Thirty-three Generous Control items, such as gas lighters and digital locks, and thirty-three Selective Control items, which include false eyelashes, pencil sharpeners, electric rice cookers, and electric kettles, will be examined based on the product itself and the actual conditions of circulation every year.
If some products are caught regularly, the agency can enact a special policy to inspect factories at any time, or it can ban the flawed products completely from the market. Also, they will set some consumer groups and safety institutes as watchdogs and will give them full responsibility to inspect the products in circulation. This measure will expand the range of investigation from just large stores in the metropolitan area to conventional markets and small stores such as stationery and toy stores.
The agency has investigated 1,003 products and caught 187 inadequate brands. It has already divested them of their safety certifications. A spokesman for the agency said: “Accessories for kids, toys, electric mats, and multi-taps still have a high rate of error … [so] … we have plans to chase down and legislate against all of those flawed goods, then cut them off.” A spokesman also asked: “Unfortunately the government can’t remove every illegal, flawed product, because of increased illegal, flawed products being sold by on-line shopping malls and minor importers (so-called peddlers), so if you find any illegal products, please report them to the portal site for safety goods at www.safetykorea.kr, and pay attention to the distribution of unlawful goods.”
