The Korea Customs Service celebrated the opening of the World Customs Organization’s regional intelligence liaison office for Asia and the Pacific in Seoul on Thursday.

Some 100 Korean and international guests, including Zhu GaZhang, director of WCO Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, attended the ceremony at the Imperial Palace Hotel in southern Seoul.

The regional office, located within the Customs Brokers Association Building in Nonhyeon-dong, southern Seoul, will support intelligence exchange among WCO members for issues like drug and weapon trafficking and trade fraud. 

The intelligence networking organization, supervised by the WCO Enforcement Committee, was established first in Hong Kong in 1987 and has since moved to Japan and China every four years.

The Seoul office has a total of nine staff officials including six from Korea and one each from China, Japan and Hong Kong. Under an agreement between the KCS and the WCO, the center will be operated in Seoul for the next four years.

“Under the slogan ‘Bridge across borders,’ we will support the center trough cooperation not just with Asia Pacific members but also with international organizations such as regional offices and Interpol,” said KCS commissioner Joo Yung-sup.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)