A suspicious package that had been sent from Taiwan to a South Korean care home was found to have originated in China, the Taipei Mission in Korea said on Friday.
Based on information provided by Taiwan’s Customs Administration, the package was confirmed to have been sent from China and transshipped to South Korea by Taiwan’s state-run postal service Chunghwa Post Co, the mission said in a statement.
The Taipei mission said it will continue to work with South Korean authorities on the matter and share the results of the probe with the police and other agencies in the country.
Photo: Screen grab from Korean Broadcasting System
The incident was discovered after three Ulsan care home staffers who opened the package on Thursday began experiencing dizziness and difficulty breathing, and they were subsequently hospitalized for treatment.
The package has since been handed over to the South Korean Agency for Defense Development for further examination.
The package had been sent by surface mail from China, then sorted through Chunghwa Post’s freight forwarding center during a stopover in Taiwan, Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said.
Without entering customs, it was later transshipped directly to South Korea via air mail, the CIB said.
POLICE WARNING
In a Yonhap News Agency report yesterday, South Korean police called for vigilance against suspicious international parcels, saying that such packages could be yellow or black, and they could have “Chunghwa Post” written on them.
The sender could be Post Office Box 100561-003777, Taipei, Taiwan, the report said.
Chunghwa Post has provided information to South Korean authorities after it was informed of the matter, the Chunghwa’s deputy chief of mail business and operations Lin Li-fu (林立富) said.
Lin said the company has temporarily suspended transshipping packages destined for South Korea from freight forwarders, as the police investigation continues.
Due to China’s insufficient postal capacity, international packages from that country often go through Taiwan before being forwarded to their final destination, the company said.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese