[By NBC-1TV E. H Kim]Korea Customs Service(Commissioner Joo, Yung Sup) held the opening ceremony for the World Customs Organization(WCO) Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific(RILO AP) in the Imperial Palace, Seoul at 10 am on Thursday, Feburary 2.

To celebrate the opening of the Seoul Office, about a hundred guests from home and abroad participated in the event including Zhu, GaoZhang, Director of WCO Compliance and Facilitation Directorate, 25 customs investigation officers from the Asia-Pacific region and foreign customs attachés.

RILO AP, located in Customs Brokers Association Building, Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul is expected to support intelligence exchange among the Asia-Pacific members against trafficking in illegal drugs, weapons, nuclear materials, etc.; IPR infringement; and international trade fraud while reinforcing global cooperation and extending technical assistances to developing member countries.

RILO AP is the first international organization hosted by Korea Customs Service. The organization has a total of 9 staff officials including 6 from Korea and 1 each from China, Japan and Hong Kong. Korea Customs will operate the center for the next 4 years under the agreement between Korea Customs and WCO.

RILO AP is a regional intelligence networking organization controlled and supervised by the WCO Enforcement Committee. Since the initial establishment in Hong Kong in 1987, the office has been operated by the customs administration of Hong Kong (‘87~’98), Japan (‘99~’03), and China (‘04~’11). From this year, Korea plans to run the center for the next 4 years.

As of 2012, 11 RILOs are being operated in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Central America, Middle East, Russsia, Africa and Europe.

In his welcoming speech, Commissioner Joo expressed his gratitude to his guests and explained the new vision “Bridge across borders” of the center. He promised to support the center to strengthen intelligence sharing and enhance cooperation with other regional RILOs, and other international agencies such as Interpol against transnational crimes so that the center would fulfill its role as a genuine global intelligence office.

Prior to this event on Wednesday, February 1, Korea Customs held a seminar with the theme of “Customs Investigation and the Role of RILO AP”. Participants from member countries including Japan, China and Hong Kong shared information on drug trafficking, trends in illicit trade and IPR infringement cases in the Asia-Pacific region.