Gov't expects higher cost for making new state seal

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Production cost of a new state seal would reach up to 244 million won (US$224,636), up more than 50 million won compared with four years ago, due to surging gold prices, the government estimated Wednesday.
The government has undertaken the production of the nation's fifth state seal since police investigators concluded in September that the old seal was not made in a traditional Korean way, different from what was claimed.



The Ministry of Public Administration and Security in charge of the state seal project said it has set the ceiling of making the gold seal at 244 million won, 28 percent more than the 190 million won spent for the old seal in 2007 to reflect price hikes.
The cost can go up to 268 million won, including value-added taxes, if the producer is not a nonprofit organization, the ministry said.
The new seal will be made into a similar size as the old one -- its handle will be around 10 centimeters in length, width and height, and the seal's total weight will be 3 kilograms or less -- according to the ministry.
These plans will be announced when the government launches an open bidding to choose the seal's producer, the ministry said. The new seal is scheduled to be completed in September, it added.
In January, Min Hong-gyu, head of the previous seal production team, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for fraud. The government also took disciplinary measures against eight officials who neglected their duty of verifying the producer and supervising the whole production process.