Yoon: "Comprehensive Investigation of Apartment Underground Parking Lot Defects... Ensuring Thorough Safety Measures"

President's Chief Secretary Issues Instructions to Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport at Meeting

President Yoon Suk-yeol on the 31st instructed, "Conduct a thorough investigation into the poor construction of apartment underground parking lots and ensure immediate safety measures are fully implemented."

Lee Do-woon, spokesperson for the Presidential Office, is giving a briefing on current issues, including introducing remarks made by President Yoon Suk-yeol at the senior secretaries' meeting held at the Presidential Office building in Yongsan, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 31st.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the same day, President Yoon gave these instructions to Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong during a senior secretaries meeting held at the Yongsan Presidential Office, White House spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a written briefing.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport held an "Emergency Safety Inspection Meeting for Public Housing" the day before and announced that, after a full investigation of 91 apartment complexes with flat slab structures commissioned by LH, shear reinforcement bars were found missing in 15 complexes.

The flat slab structure is a construction method where concrete slabs are placed directly on columns without separate beams (ryang). To reinforce the connection between columns and slabs, steel bars called shear reinforcement bars are necessary.

Without shear reinforcement bars, the slab cannot support the weight and may sag downward under the column, increasing the risk of collapse. The underground parking lot of the Geomdan apartment complex, infamously nicknamed "Sunsal Xi," was also found to have collapsed due to the absence of shear reinforcement bars.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Among the 15 complexes missing shear reinforcement bars in this investigation, five complexes, including the newlywed hope town apartments in Byeollae-dong, Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, have already been occupied.

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