Another Lithium Polymer Battery Explodes

Portable electronic gadget users were shocked Tuesday following reports of another a battery explosion after a similar incident at the end of February.

The National Council of the Green Consumers Network (NCGC) said that a lithium polymer battery in an ``I-STATION V43 NAVI'' ― portable multimedia player (PMP) ― produced by Digital Cube, blew up last Wednesday. No injuries were reported.

Digital Cube said the gadget first hit the domestic market in 2005 and 100,000 have been sold.

According to the council, the affected customer sensed the faulty battery was overheating after using the PMP for about four hours. The user separated it from the main body to cool it down but the battery exploded.

The company asked the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) to conduct a test to find out the exact cause of the explosion.

``The accident is not our fault,'' Kim Hyun-ho, spokesman for Digital Cube, told The Korea Times. ``We imported batteries from the Chinese manufacturer TCL Corporation and attached them into main bodies in Korea.''

``We will have a meeting next week with officials from KATS, NCGC and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy to set exact dates for a public safety test,'' Kim said.

Hwang In-taek, a researcher at KATS, said ``The demand for lithium polymer batteries is on the rise globally, especially among cell phone makers, since they're safer than lithium batteries. Still, battery explosions seem to be increasing.''