Nearly 70,000 cases of exotic diseases and insect pests were detected at airports and sea ports across South Korea over the last seven years, government data showed, pointing to a possible loophole in the nation’s quarantine system for imports.

The number of interceptions of non-indigenous diseases and insect pests at airports and ports nationwide from 2010 to 2016 amounts to 69,445, according to the data of the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency.

The figure ranged from about 7,000 to about 9,000 annually between 2010 and 2014, but surged to 12,075 in 2015 and 13,529 in 2016, it said.