Reuters | November 22, 1999
SEOUL - Agriculture minister Kim Sung-hoon was cited as saying that South Korea would start to label genetically modified organisms (GMO) before April, 2001 and that the country will first label GMOs on corn, soybeans and bean sprouts, adding, "South Korea will enforce GMO labelling before April, 2001 and the labelling will be first applied to three agricultural products such as corn, soybean and bean sprouts."
The story notes that Japan decided in August, under consumer pressure, that foods made with genetically modified crops should be specially labelled, beginning in April, 2001.
South Korea enacted the Agro Fisheries Quality Management Act, which regulates GMO labelling, on July 1.
A senior agriculture ministry official was quoted as saying, "We will prepare a proposal detailing guidelines for labelling GMO on the three agricultural products by the end of this month."
The country will then canvass public opinion on the proposals for the next month, the official said. "It will take about another three months when we send the final proposal on the GMO labelling to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)."
The WTO would examine whether the proposals would violate fair trade agreements among WTO members.
South Korea's annual demand for soybeans in 1998 totalled 1.644 million tonnes and 90.5 percent of the total was imported, data from the agriculture ministry showed. The data also showed that the country's annual demand for corn in 1998 was 7.496 million tonnes and that 98.8 percent of the total was imported.
