South Korea's National Assembly said Monday Samsung Electronics Co. has produced 490,000 units of the Galaxy Note 7 phablet since last month in the country, adding it has identified only 35 devices with faulty batteries worldwide so far.
The announcement came after Samsung announced a global recall of the Note 7 smartphones on Friday as some of their batteries caught fire while being charged. Samsung also decided to replace all Note 7 smartphones sold to customers with new ones.
The Trade, Industry and Energy Committee said Samsung identified 17 cases and 18 cases of flammable batteries at home and abroad, respectively.
Industry watchers, however, said the number may increase as there might be incidents not yet reported to the manufacturer.
The data also said Samsung sold 429,000 units of Galaxy Note 7 since the release. The global figures, however, have not yet been made public.
"Samsung must be transparent about information related to the case, and come up with plans for compensation and recurrence preventions," Rep. Lee Chan-yeol of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea said. (Yonhap)
