Ministry of the Interior and Safety Forms Public-Private Joint 'Landslide Damage Prevention Disaster Cause Investigation Team'

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 7th that, due to numerous casualties caused by landslides and soil erosion during extreme heavy rains this year, it will form a joint civil-government "Landslide Damage Prevention Disaster Cause Investigation Team" and establish measures to prevent loss of life.

The investigation team will be led by Professor Lee Seung-ho of Sangji University and consist of 11 members, including five private experts and officials at the director level from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Korea Forest Service, and Gyeongbuk Provincial Office. The team will operate for about three months, with 12 related organizations participating as collaborative institutions, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mungyeong City and Yecheon County in Gyeongbuk, and the Korea Forest Cooperatives Federation.

The first meeting is scheduled for the 8th at the Government Complex Seoul, where the investigation team and all collaborative institutions will participate to discuss the current status of casualties caused by landslides, plans for conducting disaster cause investigations, preliminary investigation analysis results, and future operation plans of the investigation team.

Based on investigation data from related agencies, the team will analyze the fundamental causes of recent landslides and review related measures for landslide prevention by each ministry. Additionally, through on-site investigations of landslide damage, they will examine the landslide early warning and alert systems, evacuation systems, and evacuation facilities, and analyze factors that make areas vulnerable to landslides. Based on this, regular meetings will be held every two weeks to review the effectiveness of existing systems with related ministries and private experts, and improvement tasks to respond to meteorological crises will be developed by November.

Ko Gwang-wan, Director of the Social Disaster Policy Bureau at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated, “When a landslide occurs, local residents lose their homes in an instant and face threats to their lives.” He added, “Especially this year, since many casualties occurred due to landslides, we will closely examine whether there were any blind spots in landslide prevention and response, and strive to establish highly effective preventive measures on-site to minimize loss of life.”

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