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With the approach of U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration, U.S. embassies around the world have received envelopes containing a white powder, with some of them actually containing toxins. It was the U.S. Embassy in Seoul's turn on Wednesday to receive an envelope full of an unidentified white powder.
Since Dec. 8, envelopes postmarked Texas containing white powder have been mailed to U.S. embassies in 18 countries, including Berlin and Brussels. Those mailed to the Prague and Tokyo missions were toxic, sparking terrorism fears.
According to police and firefighters in Seoul, the U.S. Embassy here discovered the white powder in an airmail envelope Wednesday morning and reported it to firefighters around 11:20 a.m. the same day. Just like the other envelopes mailed earlier to the U.S. embassies in 18 countries, the envelope was postmarked Texas and addressed simply to the embassy.
The Research Institute of Public Health & Environment received the white powder around 1:30 p.m. and tested for six biological germs, including anthrax. All tests were negative. But additional protein tests turned out to be inconclusive for the toxin ricin. The institute then asked the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a second opinion.
The CDC said, "The first round of tests was negative for biological germs, such as anthrax bacteria and ricin. But the result of a precise analysis will come out around this weekend."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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