Government's inaction despite Volkswagen’s fooling Koreans

Prosecution says on Thursday that Audi Volkswagen Korea has sold more than 50,000 units of cars, whose key parts of emissions were illicitly replaced, in the Korean market. According to the prosecution, the company had 17 parts and components including emission recycling device, fuel injector, and catalytic converter certified by the Environment Ministry when it first introduced the vehicles to Korea, but sold the same models of cars whose certified parts were replaced with uncertified ones. Volkswagen was caught for failing to have its cars certified and paid 1 billion won (850,000 U.S. dollars) in fine in 2013. The company is effectively a habitual criminal and is no better than a con artist on the street.

Volkswagen was under fire around the world for manipulating emission control devices, but it is unusual that their criminal acts have been continuously revealed one after another in Korea. Prosecutors confirmed that Audi Volkswagen Korea has fabricated 48 cases of testing records in its gas mileage reports for 26 vehicles since June 2012. The company submitted sloppy recall plans for over 120,000 vehicles whose emission control devices were manipulated, which got rejected by the ministry three times. In the U.S. and Europe, Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn admitted to emission cheating in person, and promised to pay compensations and fines. However, the German car giant is behaving very arrogantly in Korea, which indicates how seriously it is disregarding the Korean government and consumers.

Even when diesel-powered Volkswagen vehicles that require immediate adjustment are driving around the country, generating pollutants 30 times the permissible level, the Environment Ministry only said it will determine whether to approve a recall or after waiting to see situations in other countries. Some motorists are not getting their vehicles recalled due to worries about a likely drop in gas mileage, effectively behaving as if they don’t care about fine dust. Considering this situation, multinational companies are committing severe misdemeanors only in Korea, just like U.K.-based Oxy Reckitt Benckiser that sold lethal humidifier disinfectant.

In a report on the economic results of air pollution, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said, “If Korea does not effectively tackle the issue, premature deaths due to air pollution will be the highest in Korea among its member states, with resulting economic loss also the heaviest.” If the Environment Ministry just rejects Volkswagen’s recall plans, the disastrous situation that the OECD has warned against could come even sooner.