Minister Kim Young-hoon summoned the heads of 49 regional labor offices to an emergency meeting on industrial safety. He told them to make sure serious accidents do not happen again at sites that have already been inspected, and to act firmly on any violations they find.
Kim said companies with repeated serious accidents of the same type deserve grave scrutiny. He told officials to treat inspections of these repeat offenders as no different from special inspections, the most intensive type of labor inspection.
"If employers still put cost-cutting ahead of safety even after a worker has died, we must make it clear to them that the responsibility they bear is heavy," Kim said.
Kim also singled out the Daebul National Industrial Complex, a shipbuilding cluster in Yeongam on the southwest coast where accidents keep recurring.
He ordered officials to find out whether aging facilities, weak commitment from employers and workers, or the ministry's own shortcomings were to blame.
The Labor Inspector Duties Act takes effect Dec. 8 and lets local governments inspect workplaces with fewer than 30 employees. Kim said the law would remake the ministry's role for the first time in 73 years.
"I will be the first to retie the laces of my safety boots," he said.
AJP Takeaways
- South Korea's Minister of Employment and Labor Kim Young-hoon called an emergency meeting of the heads of 49 regional labor offices on Nov. 7, 2026, and ordered zero tolerance for safety violations at workplaces with repeated fatal accidents.
- Kim told regional offices to inspect companies with repeated serious accidents of the same type as strictly as special inspections, and to find the causes of recurring accidents at the Daebul National Industrial Complex in Yeongam.
- The Labor Inspector Duties Act, which takes effect Dec. 8, 2026, gives local governments part of the labor ministry's power to inspect workplaces with fewer than 30 employees.
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