Full-body scanners to be used at key airports

Social Affairs

Published: 27 Jan. 2010, 20:59

Full-body scanners to be used at key airports

Above, full-body scanners like this one have already been installed in some airports in the U.S. and will be installed at major international airports in Korea. Right, an image from a full-body scanner. [JoongAng Photo]

International travelers will have to go through full-body scanners and liquid bomb detectors in airports across the country starting in June, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs announced yesterday.

The ministry’s move to heighten airport security is meant to deter possible terror threats after a suspected Al Qaeda member’s failed Christmas Day attempt to blow up a plane on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The measure also comes before November’s scheduled G-20 Summit. Leaders of the world’s major and emerging economic powers will attend the summit chaired by the Korean government.

The liquid detectors can swiftly detect explosives. Gimpo, Gimhae and Jeju international airports already have such detectors. Others will be installed at Incheon International Airport. The full-body scanners will be able to accurately detect nonmetallic substances such as ceramics and powder explosives. Current metal detectors are not sensitive to such devices.

“To minimize concerns by human rights advocates that full-body scanners severely infringe rights to human dignity and privacy, the scanners to be installed in the international airports don’t have functions to save, print out and transfer body images of passengers,” said Jeong Pil-man, a ministry aviation security division official. Jeong added that “Images of passenger’s faces and other crucial parts of the body will be blurred to protect the passenger’s privacy.”

The ministry will also prohibit airport personnel in charge of full-body scanners from bringing cameras, cell phones and other devices with them in body image analytical laboratories, Jeong said.

Only passengers who are on the watch list and who are suspected of carrying suspicious materials on their first security checks will undergo the full-body screenings, the ministry said.

Pregnant women, the disabled and infants will be exempt from the full-body screening.

Full-body scanners in the United States, England, the Netherlands and Japan are operating in a pilot stage and countries such as Canada, France, Nigeria, Italy and Thailand plan to install the devices in the near future. The scanners can detect nonmetallic substances without touching an individual’s body, according to the ministry.

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]

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