Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Conduct Intensive Inspections of 130 Illegal Subcontracting Sites Starting from the 28th

5th Meeting of Central Accident Response Headquarters Held on 24th
Focused Discussion on Demolition Work and Illegal Subcontracting Improvement Measures

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Noh Hyung-wook held the 5th Central Accident Response Headquarters meeting on the 24th regarding the building collapse accident in Dong-gu, Gwangju, discussing the status of measures taken for major issues and improvement plans. / Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Central Accident Response Headquarters of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 24th that it held the 5th meeting chaired by Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Noh Hyung-wook regarding the building collapse accident in Dong-gu, Gwangju.

At this meeting, the current status of measures and improvement plans for major issues revealed in the accident, such as insufficient safety compliance at demolition sites, institutional deficiencies, and illegal subcontracting, were intensively discussed.

First, regarding the inspection of demolition sites, the 'Government-Local Government Joint Inspection' that began on the 16th initially targeted 140 sites, but after additional GIS analysis including adjacent bus stops, about 60 additional high-risk sites were selected, expanding the target to 207 sites, which are currently being inspected. Sites where violations were detected were ordered to stop construction and immediately correct the issues.

Separately from the 'Government-Local Government Joint Inspection,' local governments will continuously conduct inspections of all demolition sites.

Along with this, through the recently held 'Demolition Site Safety Inspection Countermeasure Meeting,' suggestions for institutional improvements from cities and provinces nationwide and various issues raised by the media are being considered, and in-depth reviews are underway regarding the introduction of resident supervision and construction start reporting systems.

Improvement plans for demolition safety will be continuously detailed through a task force composed of related experts, and related institutional improvement plans will be finalized promptly.

To ensure more thorough safety management of buildings within regions, the establishment of Regional Building Safety Centers in local governments with populations under 500,000 will also be actively promoted. For local governments with populations over 500,000, the establishment of Regional Building Safety Centers will be mandatory by December this year.

Taking this accident as an opportunity, active measures will also be prepared to eradicate illegal subcontracting in construction work, and on-site inspections will be conducted.

Based on recently detected cases of illegal subcontracting, the types of illegal subcontracting occurrences and the causes of construction businesses illegally subcontracting without direct construction will be analyzed, and countermeasures will be prepared promptly accordingly.

In addition, to investigate the actual conditions of illegal subcontracting at construction sites nationwide, joint inspections will be conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, regional offices, and local governments. From the 28th, focused inspections will be conducted on about 130 sites suspected of illegal subcontracting among sites where subcontract contracts are made. If illegal re-subcontracting is detected as a result of the inspection, imprisonment for up to three years or a fine of up to 30 million won will be imposed.

Minister Noh said, “We will thoroughly check safety compliance through on-site inspections and strictly take action against violations,” and added, “Also, please accurately grasp the site conditions through inspections and prepare recurrence prevention measures with enforceability and effectiveness.”

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