"800 Million Spent, Yet Another Collection"... Poor Mercury Equipment Management Under Fire

Wonjong Park Calls for Comprehensive Review of Management System
Provincial Office of Education: "Additional Omissions Identified... Early Collection Planned for Next Year"

Wonjong Park, a member of the Jeonnam Provincial Council's Education Committee (Democratic Party of Korea, Yeonggwang 1), criticized the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education for its poor management of mercury-containing equipment and pointed out loopholes throughout the administrative system.

During the administrative audit of the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education held on November 3, Assemblyman Park stated, "I understand that in 2022, approximately 800 million won was spent to conduct a comprehensive survey of liquid mercury and mercury-containing equipment in schools across the province, and all items were disposed of." He continued, "However, the fact that an additional 1,300 items were discovered this year is not a simple mistake, but rather the result of a fundamental failure in the administrative management system."

Wonjong Park, Former Member of Jeonnam Provincial Assembly

In response, Kim Younggil, Director of Glocal Future Education at the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Education, explained, "Some mercury-containing equipment at certain schools was omitted from the initial survey, and as additional investigations were conducted by specialized personnel such as laboratory technicians, 1,300 more items were newly identified."

Assemblyman Park criticized, "The fact that collection is being carried out again, even after spending 800 million won to complete mercury disposal, is a clear administrative inefficiency," adding, "The network for managing equipment between the provincial office, local offices, and schools is virtually nonfunctional."

He added, "While I highly commend the Office of Education for promptly conducting a comprehensive survey and disposal after the mercury leak incident, it should not end as a one-off measure. A systematic system must now be established to ensure that equipment management is not neglected at the school level."

Director Kim responded, "At the beginning of the next school year, we will work with the education support offices to initiate the collection procedures as early as possible."

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