Jung Hee-chan, a trainer at Korea Customs Service's (KCS) Detector Dog Training Center, trains his K-9 partner Aero, a labrador retriever, on narcotic detection at the training center in Incheon earlier this year. Courtesy of KCS

Jung Hee-chan, an instructor at Korea Customs Service's (KCS) Detector Dog Training Center, describes the partnership between a handler and a sniffer dog at the KCS as "close enough to sense and share each other's emotions just through the leash."

Jung Hee-chan, a trainer at Korea Customs Service's (KCS) Detector Dog Training Center, trains his partner Aero, a labrador retriever, on narcotic detection at the training center in Incheon earlier this year. Courtesy of KCS

And building such partnership did not happen overnight," Jung underlined, stressing it owes to nearly 40 years of skills and expertise passed on through generations of detector dog trainers after Korea received six bomb-sniffing dogs donated from the United States in preparation for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

"And I am grateful to all these devoted trainers who have served before me, as the KCS's detector dog training is highly recognized in the world, and it makes me proud to serve the country and its people," he told The Korea Times in a telephone interview last week.

Jung referred to the World Customs Organization designating the KCS Detector Dog Training Center in 2021 as the hub of K-9 training in the Asia-Pacific region.

Also, Korea donated sniffer dogs to Thailand in 2023, marking the first case of such a donation in its history.

Under the circumstances, Jung, 31, having served for almost six years at the KCS, represents a pool of young handlers who have successfully absorbed the skills and expertise the KCS has accumulated over the past decades.

The agency currently has 96 sniffer dogs, which are mainly tasked with narcotic detection, while explosives detection also remains crucial.

Fifty-six of the 96 dogs are based at Detector Dog Training Center. The other 22 are at Incheon International Airport, while the remaining dogs are assigned at other Korean air and sea ports of entry, including Gimpo, Pyeongtaek, Gimhae, Daegu, Gunsan, Gwangju and Jeju.

Of the 96, Jung's partner Aero, a labrador retriever, detected 1 gram of cocaine hidden inside the wallet of a passenger who was entering Incheon International Airport from the U.S. in October 2023.

Such a dose of cocaine, according to Jung, is highly undetectable, especially as the suspected smuggler had the wallet under a pile of other travel items in the luggage he was carrying.

"My partner previously detected drugs numerous times, but even so, finding a tiny dose of cocaine made me think again about how advanced the KCS is in training dogs to utilize their acute sense of smell," Jung said.

Asked about the advantage of having a dog as a partner at workplace instead of a human, he answered "being able to work in harmony as if we were a single entity."

"I don't necessarily make an order to Aero, as in a vertical relationship between a guardian and a pet as well as a superior and a subordinate, because we've been together for years, and we understand what we want instantly," he said.

"The fact that a detector dog spends most of its life with a handler before retirement also means handlers treat their partner in a respectful and thoughtful manner."