A series of security breaches at Incheon International Airport including illegal entry to the country by transit passengers and the discovery of a suspect package with a threatening message, has raised concerns about safety at the country’s biggest airport.

Questions surrounded the management of the overall passenger screening process and unmanned immigration service kiosks. The airport has been running without a CEO since its former head Park Wan-su quit last month to run for office in the general election slated for April.

As concerns soared, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn convened an emergency meeting Sunday to call the incidents a “crisis” and ask for stronger security measures at the airport. 

“Protecting the airport that is the gateway into a country is to protect our nation. No action that threatens the safety can be tolerated,” Hwang hold attending ministers and called for an enactment of the pending antiterror bill.

Police said Saturday they discovered a warning message written in Arabic inside a box that was discovered the day before in a men’s bathroom at the airport.
 

The message read: “This is the last warning being sent to you. God will punish.” According to police, the sentence had grammatical errors and might have been translated by using an automatic translating app or by somebody whose first language was not Arabic.

The box had initially been suspected to contain an explosive device, but no explosives were found, the police said. The box had a number of random objects inside, including two butane canisters, a bottle of water, broccoli, banana peel, guitar strings and batteries, among other items. 

The police said Sunday they were gathering more information about the origins of the box, which was from a local bakery chain.

Clues will be gathered by finding out where the box in question was manufactured and distributed, the police said. They have also obtained 19 sets of fingerprints from the restroom and are processing them.

Also on Friday, a Vietnamese man in his 20s entered South Korea by forcing his way through an automatic immigration service gate at the airport.

A week before, a Chinese couple, transfer passengers en route to Beijing from Tokyo, illegally entered the country by slipping through a designated gate for airport staff located near the immigration desks. It took the airport officials 11 hours to discover the illegal entry by the couple, who had reportedly came in through a broker seeking jobs.

By Claire Lee  (dyc@heraldcorp.com)