Ministry of the Interior and Safety Improves 27 Items Including Inadequate Safety Inspection Regulations... Strengthens Safety Management Personnel Deployment at Construction Sites

Finalized After Review by the Safety Policy Coordination Committee

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will proactively identify and improve previously insufficient safety inspection and safety management plan regulations in collaboration with related ministries to prevent safety accident causes in advance.

On the 27th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it finalized a total of 27 improvement tasks in the 'Safety Inspection and Management Plan Institutional Improvement Tasks' through the 1st Safety Policy Coordination Committee held the previous day, including 14 safety inspections and 13 safety management plans. These tasks were discovered through in-depth analysis of safety systems by type from 11 ministries including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and National Fire Agency. The safety inspection sector focused on analyzing inspector qualifications, safety inspection standards, and post-inspection follow-up regulations, while the safety management plan sector concentrated on targets for establishment, establishment procedures, and evaluation regulations.

In the safety inspector qualification sector, six institutional improvements will be pursued, including qualifications for traditional market safety inspectors and strengthening the allocation of safety management personnel at construction sites. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups currently designates entrusted agencies to conduct safety inspections of traditional markets, but due to insufficient inspector qualification regulations, qualification provisions will be newly established in the traditional market fire safety inspection operation guidelines. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will strengthen the standard number of safety management personnel at construction sites from 0.4 to 0.9 persons per day, which previously allowed concurrent duties with other tasks, to at least one person per day dedicated solely to construction safety management tasks.

In the safety inspection standards sector, three institutional improvements will be pursued, including strengthening marina port safety inspection regulations and shortening inspection cycles for high-risk and aged construction machinery. The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has so far applied safety inspection standards only to marina ports designated as Type 1, 2, and 3 facilities under the Special Act on the Management of Maritime Facilities, but will prepare 'Marina Port Facility Safety Inspection Guidelines' to enable systematic inspections of marina port facilities not covered by the act. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will shorten the inspection cycle for high-risk construction machinery such as pile drivers and cranes from three years to one year, and for construction machinery older than 20 years from one year to six months to prevent construction machinery safety accidents.

In the post-inspection follow-up sector, five institutional improvements will be pursued, including mandatory submission of hazardous materials self-inspection results and submission of results for the recall of illegal children's products. The National Fire Agency will mandate the submission of self-inspection results by hazardous materials handlers, who previously had no administrative reporting obligations after self-inspections, to enhance inspection effectiveness, and will strengthen follow-up measures such as imposing fines for non-submission.

The Ministry of Environment will require manufacturers to recall illegal children's products and mandatorily submit recall results to the competent environmental office to block the unauthorized distribution of illegal children's products in the market.

In the safety management plan target establishment sector, two institutional improvements will be pursued, including establishing a legal basis for medical device safety management plans. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety currently establishes basic plans for medical device manufacturing and distribution but limits them to monitoring manufacturing and distribution. Through amendments to the Medical Device Act, comprehensive medical device safety management plans will be established covering all stages from approval to post-management.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport currently establishes the Basic Plan for Construction Industry Promotion (focused on industry promotion), but safety management measures are insufficiently reflected. Therefore, it will enact the Construction Safety Special Act assigning safety responsibilities to construction project entities and prepare safety measures.

In the safety management plan establishment procedure sector, eight institutional improvements will be pursued, including opinion collection during the establishment of comprehensive elevator safety policies and the establishment of a deliberation body for the Basic Plan for Disaster Management in Broadcasting and Communications. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will newly establish procedural regulations such as collecting opinions from related agencies and experts and administrative notices due to insufficient procedural regulations for establishing comprehensive elevator safety policies.

The Ministry of Science and ICT will establish a legal basis for deliberation by the Communications Disaster Management Deliberation Committee due to insufficient procedural regulations for the Basic Plan for Disaster Management in Broadcasting and Communications.

In the safety management plan evaluation regulation sector, three institutional improvements will be pursued, including establishing regulations for performance inspection and evaluation in comprehensive plans related to firefighting duties. The National Fire Agency will mandate performance inspection and evaluation due to insufficient evaluation regulations for detailed plan implementation results when establishing comprehensive plans related to firefighting duties.

Yoon Jong-jin, Director of Safety Policy at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated, “To protect the safety and lives of the public, it is important to improve safety management systems proactively before safety accidents occur,” adding, “We plan to continue in-depth analysis of safety systems by type and meticulously improve them to ensure there are no safety blind spots.”

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