Seoul: The number of attempts to bring in fake goods detected by South Korea's customs agency rose nearly 20 percent from a year earlier in 2024 amid a sharp rise in cases involving counterfeit bags, shoes, and clothes, a government report showed Friday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Customs Service (KCS) seized more than 1.4 million items totaling 230 tons that violate intellectual property rights last year. Authorities seized these products in a total of 102,219 crackdowns, marking a 19.9 percent increase compared with 85,000 cases the previous year.

More than eight out of 10 of these cases were direct overseas purchases, with the number of items seized in such cases more than doubling to 733,000 over the cited period. By item, bags accounted for the largest proportion, followed by shoes and clothes.

Notably, crackdowns on fake toys and stationary products grew nearly six times from 752 cases to 4,414 cases over the one-year period. In terms of the country of origin, China and Hong Kong accounted for the most at 96.1 percent of all cases. Vietnam and Australia followed with 3.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.