Church Steeple, Emergency Escape Devices in Lodging Facilities, etc... Seoul City Proposes Legal Amendments for 111 Safety Improvement Items

Production of Casebook on Improvements in 10 Areas Directly Related to Citizen Safety
Legal Issues Pointed Out to 13 Relevant Ministries Including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

Demolition work is underway at the collapsed kindergarten site in Sangdo-dong, Seoul, on September 10, 2018. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Seoul Metropolitan Government has identified 111 cases of legal and regulatory improvements directly related to citizens' daily safety and compiled a casebook totaling about 300 pages. This month, the casebook will be distributed to 13 relevant ministries in charge of related laws, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, to propose amendments to laws and regulations. It will also be delivered to the Board of Audit and Inspection and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to request support.

Seoul announced on the 21st that since many major safety accidents often stem from minor mistakes or blind spots in related systems, it re-examined past accident cases and safety audit results, comprehensively covering problems in related laws and improvement measures to complete the casebook.

The casebook also includes opinions from experts and citizens in related fields gathered at the 'Citizen Grand Debate' held last October.

The casebook is broadly divided into 10 categories: construction sites, construction machinery, buildings, lodging facilities, multi-family housing, structures, underground facilities, fire safety, road facilities, and other facilities. It introduces cases of safety regulation 'deficiencies,' 'relaxations,' and 'exemptions' by category.

For example, a representative case where there is no established regulation for facility installation and safety inspection is the demand to strengthen safety management of 'religious facility steeples.' Steeple structures are vulnerable to natural disasters such as strong winds and need to be regulated as reportable items, but they are currently excluded from the reporting targets under the 'Enforcement Decree of the Building Act' and are instead subject to regulations applied to monuments and similar structures. Accordingly, Seoul proposed that religious facility steeples be specifically listed as a type of structure in the Enforcement Decree and be regulated as reportable items regardless of height.

A representative case of an exemption applied to facilities built before strengthened regulations is the safety management of 'emergency escape devices in lodging facility rooms.' In 2015, the 'Fire Safety Standards for Escape Equipment' were strengthened to require the installation of two or more simple emergency escape devices in lodging facility rooms, but the supplementary provisions exempt buildings constructed before then, leaving a blind spot. The city proposed deleting the exemption for the installation of simple emergency escape devices in small lodging facilities.

There were also cases where laws allowed facility owners to apply relatively weaker safety measures among various options.

Currently, the 'Regulations on Housing Construction Standards' set the electrical facility capacity installed in houses at 3 kW or more per household. However, due to increased electricity demand caused by recent heatwaves and cold waves, large apartment complexes that cannot handle this standard frequently experience power outages. Seoul requested that the regulation be amended to require the installation of transformers with a capacity of 6 kW or more in multi-family housing.

Lee Yoon-jae, Chairman of the Seoul Metropolitan Government Audit Committee, said, "Safety is a fundamental premise of community happiness and an essential element for sustainable economic development. I ask the central ministries in charge of related laws to take active interest in the safety-related institutional improvements discovered by Seoul."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.