On Sunday morning Whang complained of a stomachache. When the pain became severe, his family brought him to a "clinic" with no emergency room in downtown Beijing, where he was given an injection of Ringer's solution. Not long after the intravenous solution was administered, Whang experienced shortness of breath. He stopped breathing soon afterwards. He was 52 years old.

Later, Chinese police officers arrived at the scene and seized what was left of the solution. They plan to perform an autopsy on Whang's body to find out the exact cause of his death.

Right now we don't know exactly why he died. He may have suffered from an unknown disease or perhaps his stressful work schedule, dealing with the on-going nuclear talks over the past several months, affected him somehow. He didn't appear sick -- when he was alive, he looked quite healthy with his dark complexion.

But his colleagues from the embassy and his Korean acquaintances in Beijing agreed on one thing as they gathered at the hospital after hearing of his sudden death. It's imperative to check if Minister Whang ate any food made from dubious ingredients before he died, and if the intravenous solution he received at the clinic was genuine.

Whang's sudden death reminded us in Beijing of the fact that we live under the threat of tainted food and bogus drugs in China. Right now there's a controversy over whether Chinese vendors really sold steamed dumplings stuffed with chemical-laced cardboard masquerading as pork. There have also been reports of shipments of bogus human blood meant for transfusions. It's a sad reminder that 600,000 Koreans working and living in China, including diplomats, corporate executives and students, are exposed to very real dangers posed by phony food and medicine.

This column was contributed by Park Sung-joon, the Chosun Ilbo's correspondent in Beijing.