"We will make a proposal of specific guidelines related to the GMO labelling by the end of this month," an official with the agriculture ministry said. South Korea's Agro Fisheries Quality Management Act, which regulates GM food labelling, was enacted on July 1. The country's agriculture ministry said earlier that it planned to set guidelines for Genetically Modified (GM) food by the end of 1999.

The guidelines would include what kinds of agricultural products should be designated for GMO labelling, which institution would examine agricultural products for the labelling and which measures would be used to decide what is GM food.

The ministry official said it was likely one or two products such as soybeans or corn would be designated for the labelling and that the state-run National Agricultural Product Quality Management Service would be in charge of examining the GM foods.

South Korea's annual demand for soybeans in 1998 totalled 1.644 million tonnes and 90.5 per cent of the total demand was imported, data from the country's 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 per cent of the total demand was imported. "The measures which will be used to decide GM food for labelling is the most complicated and hottest issue," the ministry official said. The official said the ministry proposals would take into account public opinion, including views from related industry officials and consumers.

Concerns on GM food increase
South Korea's state-run Korea Consumer Protection Board (KCPB) has said that 18 from a total of 22 different brands of Tofu or soybean curd on sale in the domestic market included GMO.

In another test on US-raised soybeans imported in March 1999, KCPB also found about 114 of its 300 soybean samples included GMO, the KCPB statement said.

In a test of 30 different brands of soybeans, the group found GMO in two types of soybeans which were both imported. It said the remaining 28 brands--which were local--were not discovered to have GMO.

"Our consumers in South Korea have not received correct information on GMO so far, while they are consuming a great amount of GM food," the KCPB statement said.

The KCPB said in its statement that it would expand GMO tests to corn, potatoes and other agricultural products, of which most are imported, in order to provide accurate GM food labelling.

An earlier survey by KCPB reported in early September found 94.7 per cent of a total of 526 respondents said labelling for GM foods was necessary. In the survey, 71.5 per cent said GM labelling should be done all the time, while 23.2 per cent said the labelling should be done in some cases.