Asbestos Problems of Korea

Asbestos mining had started in Korea, mainly under the Japanese occupation. Almost all the asbestos mined at that time was exported for the Japanese naval ship building. At the end of World War II, the mining had stopped completely. Its activity had resumed only in the 1960s with the growth of the asbestos cement industry. In the mid‐1980s, asbestos mining had stopped again because the domestic products could not compete with the cheap but higher quality imports. Asbestos textile and brake lining industries had started in the 1970s, and the importation of raw asbestos had peaked in 1992 over 90 thousand tons. Since that time, the activities of these industries had dwindled down because of the economic situation of Korea. After the economic crisis in 1997, the importation of raw asbestos fell to less than a third of the previous peak level. The asbestos industry had moved or died out continuously as it could not com-