Fines for Releasing Sky Lanterns in Forests and Adjacent Areas

At a sky lantern festival, citizens are releasing lanterns high into the sky. Photo unrelated to the article. Source=Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Forest Service is putting a brake on flying sky lanterns and other hot air balloons in forests and forest-adjacent areas (within 100m).

On the 31st, the Korea Forest Service announced the revision and promulgation of the "Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules of the Forest Protection Act" with this content. The revision includes a ban on flying small hot air balloons such as sky lanterns in forests and forest-adjacent areas during the forest fire prevention period, and imposes a fine of up to 1 million won for violations.

According to the revision, the periods during which flying small hot air balloons such as sky lanterns is prohibited are from February 1 to May 15 (spring forest fire prevention period) and from November 1 to December 15 (autumn forest fire prevention period) every year.

Ko Rak-sam, head of the Forest Fire Prevention Division at the Korea Forest Service, said, "Considering past cases where small hot air balloons such as sky lanterns caused forest fires, we have established a legal basis for necessary forest fire prevention through this institutional revision," and added, "The Korea Forest Service will continue to actively develop and strengthen policies for forest fire prevention."

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