The Korea Coast Guard spent billions of won on a project to develop rescue boats for people stranded on tidal flats, only to halt the effort without results, according to data obtained by a lawmaker. Problems surfaced at nearly every stage — the selection of research partners, project evaluation, spending of research funds and follow-up management — prompting calls for a full review of the agency's research and development oversight.
According to materials submitted by the Korea Coast Guard to Suh Sam-suk, a Democratic Party lawmaker who chairs the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, the agency spent 3.8 billion won ($2.6 million) of a 5 billion won budget on the "Korean all-weather rescue boat for people stranded along the coast" project launched in 2019, but never completed the equipment it set out to build.
The project was intended to produce a dedicated rescue boat capable of moving quickly across tidal flats. Development was originally due to finish by June 2023, with trial operations starting that December. But in January 2023, five months before the planned completion, the lead research firm, identified as Company A, ran into deteriorating finances and the project fell behind.
After a special evaluation, the Coast Guard and related agencies replaced Company A with Company B in March that year. Company B went bankrupt just two months later, in May, halting the research and development entirely.
The core problem was that the evaluation system meant to verify the financial soundness of research partners did not work. In the special R&D evaluations conducted by the Coast Guard and related agencies, both Company A and Company B were rated as carrying "no bankruptcy risk" under the category assessing default and insolvency risk. Both firms then failed to carry out the project because of financial distress, raising questions about how research partners were selected and assessed.
Spending of research funds was also mishandled. Companies A and B were found to have used 280 million won on purposes unrelated to the research, including the production of corporate promotional videos. The Coast Guard discovered this only belatedly, during a consolidated settlement of research funds, and did not begin debt collection until August this year — about three years after the project was suspended. Having failed to screen out the financial risks at the research firms, the agency then delayed follow-up action on the misuse of funds, exposing gaps across its project management, critics say.
While the rescue equipment remained undeveloped, casualties from tidal-flat strandings continued. Coast Guard data show that from 2022 through August this year, 40 people died and 397 were rescued in such incidents. Tidal flats are difficult for rescue crews to reach because of the terrain, and the risk of being stranded rises with the incoming tide, making dedicated equipment for rapid rescues an urgent need.
The Coast Guard relaunched a tidal-flat rescue equipment research project last year, but development is not scheduled to be completed until December 2028. That is about five years later than the December 2023 date originally set for trial operations. The delay contrasts with the Army, which has been operating tidal-flat mobility equipment since 2023. The prolonged wait for the Coast Guard's equipment has raised concerns about a gap in frontline rescue capability.
"It is a serious problem that a project to develop rescue equipment meant to save lives was halted because of poor management and oversight, and that a huge amount of budget was wasted as well," Suh said. "Failing to even screen out the bankruptcy risk at the research firms, and then delaying the recovery of misused research funds, is a matter that calls for a review of the entire project management process."
"The government must conduct a full review of R&D projects, from selection and evaluation through the spending of research funds and follow-up management, and strengthen oversight so that the follow-up project proceeds without disruption," he added. "It must also do everything possible to secure rescue equipment and put field safety measures in place so that tidal-flat accidents can be dealt with quickly."
