There’s currently a public spat between South Korea’s president and Incheon International Airport’s president, which could soon impact passengers. I can’t really make sense of this, because this seems like a silly thing to focus on. Perhaps there’s a bit of nuance here, and this is more about political posturing than anything else. Even so, it seems like a losing battle…
In this post:
President demands all bags at Incheon be manually searched
This situated started on Friday, December 12, 2025, and involves South Korean president Lee Jae-myung. During a work report by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, the president expressed concern about a method of money smuggling, whereby cash could be smuggled via commercial flights.
The idea is that cash could be placed into books like bookmarks, and a lot of it could be transported. So the president called on Incheon Airport president Lee Hag-jae to have security staff start manually searching all bags, to identify books, and then go through them to make sure they’re free of cash.
The airport president pushed back on this proposal, saying that if security staff were to manually search 100% of bags, “the airport would be paralyzed.” That caused the country’s president to attack him, as he didn’t like being publicly refuted. Following that, the airport president wrote the following (translated to English):
“At the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport work report session, I only read what was written by the president. The reprimands I received, such as ‘How long is your term?’ and ‘You haven’t even grasped your duties,’ were twofold.”
“I was taken aback when asked if we could detect multiple 100-dollar bills hidden in bookmarks and failed to provide an actual response. Illegal foreign currency smuggling falls under customs’ jurisdiction, while Incheon Airport Corporation’s inspection duties involve hazardous items such as knives, awls, firearms, lighters, and liquids. Incheon Airport hands over any discovered illegal foreign currency smuggling to customs during hazardous item inspections.”
“According to my confirmation, even Incheon Corporation employees who have worked at Incheon Airport for 30 years are unaware of whether bookmark dollar inspections are conducted unless they work in the security inspection field. This incident has informed the world that ‘hiding dollars in bookmarks avoids detection,’ and implementing the 100% baggage opening inspection proposed by the president as a solution would paralyze the airport.”
For the backstory here, it seems that the country’s president may have been trying to embarrass the airport’s president, since he was appointed during a previous administration, and is a former lawmaker from an opposing party.
This proposal is completely and utterly unrealistic
I think the airport’s president is 100% correct here. Honestly, under the best of circumstances, I find Incheon Airport to be a mess, in terms of security and immigration wait times. If every single bag had to be manually searched, the airport might as well just shut down, because there’s no way security staff would be able to do that in an even semi-efficient way.
For that matter, of all the potential issues a country faces, does this really rank anywhere close to up there? You can typically travel internationally with $10,000 in cash, so how much more could you realistically fit into a book? It’s not like you could smuggle millions of dollars in a book.
Is the country’s president serious about this proposal, or was this purely intended to try to embarrass the airport’s president? Because at least as an outsider, I feel like the opposite has happened here.
Bottom line
South Korea’s president seemingly wants airport security personnel to manually search 100% of bags, to ensure that there are no books with cash in them. For whatever reason, he believes this could be a common method for smuggling cash beyond the legal limit.
The airport president publicly pushed back against his order and said it was impossible, leading to a spat between the two. It’ll be interesting to see how this evolves, because it’s simply not a realistic proposal.
What do you make of this Incheon Airport book situation?
FLIP THROUGH all the books , allow the contraband to fly through the air conditioning , and let the passengers pick up whatever they wish . Magic air conditioning .
Why recent South Korean Presidents are all lunatics.
Must be some dangerous toxins or poisons in Blue House.
Lead, mercury, radon, heljoseon?
Nah, I wouldn't 'both sides' this. Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached AND removed in 2025 for wrongly declaring martial law. The current President, Lee Jae Myung, is doing just fine, regardless of this 'news.'
Current president is very popular and the media rarely says negatively about him including this incident. I found it odd that the media portraits the airport representative as a weirdo and praises the president to protect us from smuggling. Ben, you may lose the number of Korean readers due to this post (or gain some), I like your post though.
There's nothing weird about that, in fact I'm amazed that more elected politicians don't leverage the soft power of the state on the media (regulatory loosening/tightening, advertising paid for by the state etc) for political gain.
Anyone willing to stop visiting a blog because its owner criticises their nation's head of state needs to seek psychological help for their fragility. In fact I'd question how they get through life. It's as bad as a college student having a microaggression-induced panic attack because someone commented on the texture of their hair.
PeteAU, I’d say, anyone who threatens to not visit a site, and/or demands others be banned or censored, merely because they disagree with them, is all kinda silly to me. Worst is when folks complain that someone comments too much. Oh, really? It’s easy: engage or ignore.
South Korea should focus on essential work, like checking the social media history of all tourists for the last five years.
Zing!
It's concerning how, one by one, presidents around the world are being more and more unhinged...
No, this is nothing like the actual unhinged leaders around the world. First and foremost, Putin who's war of choice has cost more than 1 million casualties to his country; next, because this is a story about the Republic of Korea, we must compare to DPRK, which has Kim "Little Rocketman" Jong Un, who rules over his 'hermit kingdom' with an iron fist; and, obviously, our own leader, Trump, who is deteriorating mentally and physically...
No, this is nothing like the actual unhinged leaders around the world. First and foremost, Putin who's war of choice has cost more than 1 million casualties to his country; next, because this is a story about the Republic of Korea, we must compare to DPRK, which has Kim "Little Rocketman" Jong Un, who rules over his 'hermit kingdom' with an iron fist; and, obviously, our own leader, Trump, who is deteriorating mentally and physically before our own eyes, engages in the most-petty attacks using social media on the most unusual minutiae all the time, while bullying our allies, and supporting our adversaries, pillaging the public good for his own private gains, and ruining most of the good that our people and nation do. So, this Korean guy is fine.
ICN security is a terrible experience as it is. Long lines, TSA-level friendliness, and multiple machines sitting idle even at peak hours
If I were to make excuses for them, they are subject to strict spending restrictions from the Korean government's Ministry of Finance, meaning they cannot hire staff at will.
Perhaps the President of South Korea and Heather Cho can make beautiful, spoiled, entitled babies together.
Can we expect Lee Jae Myung to slap Lee Hag-jae?
It's time for a little malicious compliance here. "We're only doing what the President ordered."
Your mastery of the obvious is masterful.
Do you have any friends in the real world?
Who does Gimpo Airport belong to? Can we buy shares?
LOL. No long-haul routes from there, just domestic and regional E. Asia (HND, KIX, NGO, SHA, PEK, PKX, TSA, KHH), so I'd still bet on ICN being the main airport for Seoul (and S. Korea, at large.)
The rules regarding GMP say that the destinations should be within a 2,000 km radius from the airport and have "enough commercial (business) demands".
These days, GMP is like the LGA or DCA of South Korea.