Seoul to conduct sanitary inspections on foreign food manufacturers

SEOUL, May 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's Cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill that allows local authorities to conduct sanitary inspections into food manufacturers abroad, the government said amid rising safety concerns over imported food products. The revised bill on food sanitation will be sent to parliament for approval, the culture ministry in charge of publicizing government affairs said in a release. The bill calls for food safety officials to conduct checks on sanitary conditions of foreign food manufacturers with prior consent from the concerned countries, the ministry said. The recent rapid rise of food imports to South Korea has prompted the need to expand local food safety regulations to include foreign manufacturers, it said. South Korea's food imports have more than doubled from 133,761 cases in 2000 to 293,988 in 2010, according to the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). The revision also contains clauses banning importers from using food imported for certain purposes for other purposes and re-importing products that are returned to the originating country after failing to pass safety checks, the ministry said. In a recent case, a wheat flour importer was caught selling flour imported for the purpose of making snacks to retailers, KFDA officials said, adding that the country has different regulations on flour imports for food manufacturing and direct consumption. These irregularities can be punished based on the enforcement ordinance to the present food safety law, but the change is aimed to get a clearer legal foundation, they said. During its weekly meeting, the Cabinet also approved a revised bill on the protection of North Korea defectors. The bill allows municipal governments and local educational offices in addition to the Unification Ministry, the main government office dealing with inter-Korean affairs, to render housing and educational support to defectors. The bill also needs parliamentary approval to become a law. More than 21,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.