Minister Noh Hyung-wook: "Comprehensive Investigation of All Factors... Will Clearly Identify the Cause of the Accident"

Central Accident Response Headquarters 4th Meeting in Gwangju... Promise to Uncover Truth and Prevent Recurrence

Noh Hyung-wook, Head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), is giving a briefing at Dong-gu Office in Gwangju Metropolitan City on the morning of the 15th.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Noh Hyung-wook, head of the Central Accident Response Headquarters (Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), stated, "We will investigate the cause and circumstances of this accident as quickly and thoroughly as possible, and if any illegal acts are revealed, we will take strict measures according to law and principles."

On the 15th, Noh held a briefing at Dong-gu Office in Gwangju Metropolitan City and said, "As soon as the police investigation results come out, we plan to provide detailed explanations to the bereaved families first, and based on the findings, we will strictly hold the responsible parties accountable."

He continued, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has formed an accident investigation committee consisting of 10 experts in construction execution, architectural structure, and legal fields. We will fully utilize their expertise to comprehensively investigate all factors that could have caused the accident, from the demolition permit to the construction process, to identify the clear cause of the accident," he emphasized.

He also said, "We will inspect whether the demolition work was properly carried out according to the demolition plan, and promptly review and promote improvements on the overall issues raised during supervision and construction processes by the media and others. Although laws and systems are in place, accidents occur because there are gaps in field implementation, so we will carefully examine and improve any problems in construction procedures and among responsible parties," he stated.

Furthermore, he stressed, "The investigation will proceed as quickly as possible under the principle of 'hurrying without rushing,' but the content will be conducted fairly. There are some assumptions about the cause of the accident based on the investigation so far, but we are conducting simulations and aiming to present results that ensure expertise and fairness."

He added, "At this stage, the problems we perceive are that various safety-related regulations and laws do not seem to have functioned properly on site. There appear to be many aspects of the related regulations that need to be supplemented, and although the regulations were formally followed, the biggest problem is that they were not actually implemented on site," he claimed.

Finally, he added, "Based on the investigation results of the accident investigation committee, we will establish fundamental measures to prevent recurrence and carefully monitor whether various accident prevention measures are properly functioning on site."

Meanwhile, at around 4:20 p.m. on the 9th, a five-story building under demolition in the redevelopment area of Hakdong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, collapsed and crushed a city bus on the road. This accident resulted in 9 deaths and 8 injuries.

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