Ruling Party and Government Discuss Measures for 'Gwangju Collapse Disaster'... Eradication of Illegal Subcontracting, Strengthening Punishment for Fatal Accidents

Song Young-gil, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the 'Party-Government Meeting on Measures to Prevent Recurrence of the Gwangju Hakdong Accident' held at the National Assembly on the 10th, delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The Democratic Party of Korea and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport discussed measures to prevent the recurrence of the ‘Gwangju Collapse Disaster’ on the 10th.

During a meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, the party and government discussed strengthening the construction safety management system and raising the punishment level for illegal subcontracting to a maximum of life imprisonment.

Kim Young-bae, a member of the party’s Industrial Accident Prevention Task Force (TF) and its chairperson, told reporters after the meeting, “The core is to strengthen a system that can continuously manage and supervise safety on site,” adding, “We decided to institutionalize a public control tower responsible for safety governance within each city, county, and district by establishing Construction Safety Centers in every local government and hiring professional architects.”

He continued, “Since public officials do not have investigative authority, even if they discover illegal subcontracting and report it to the police, the offenders could escape, and there was nothing that could be done,” and said, “We decided to introduce special judicial police officers to catch them.”

In addition, the party and government agreed to introduce a resident supervision system that separately manages demolition work and a one-strike-out system for illegal subcontracting. Lee Soo-jin, the TF secretary, emphasized, “We will raise the punishment level for clients who force illegal acts on subcontractors without legal validity,” and added, “If casualties occur at illegal subcontracting sites, we will impose severe punishments such as life imprisonment as a differentiated clause.”

Party leader Song Young-gil said in his opening remarks that “This accident is an intolerable case where citizen safety was destroyed in front of illegal profits,” and raised his voice, saying, “We must definitely improve this so that there is no cost-saving in construction expenses through reducing safety costs in the future.”

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Noh Hyung-wook also said, “84% of the construction cost was cut during the illegal subcontracting process, and the poor-quality construction to compensate for this caused this accident,” adding, “This measure focuses on significantly strengthening post-accident punishment and creating a system where construction companies monitor each other rather than having a symbiotic relationship.”

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