Jung Won-oh, the Democratic Party's candidate for Seoul mayor, held an emergency meeting with domestic safety experts on Thursday afternoon at his campaign office in Taepyeong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, to discuss the causes of and response measures for the recent string of safety disasters in Seoul.
At the meeting, Jung first offered his condolences to the victims of the accidents and expressed deep sympathy for the bereaved families.
He then discussed with the experts the causes, problems and improvement measures for the successive safety disasters. They also exchanged views on long-term and structural ways to strengthen safety for Seoul's aging infrastructure.
Jung emphasized that the most important duty of the central or local government is to guarantee the lives and safety of citizens. An official from Jung's camp said, "Candidate Jung pointed out the reality that accidents continue to occur," adding, "He expressed regret that our society does not seem to have moved a single step forward even after major social disasters."
Attending the meeting as experts were Seo Seok-gu, vice chairman of Kyungwon Engineering; Ki Sung-ho, chairman of the Safety Management Engineers Association of the Korea Construction Engineers Association and a professor in the Department of Construction Disaster Prevention and Safety Engineering at Dankook University; and Cho Sung-il, president of the Rene Disaster Prevention Policy Research Institute and head of the Central Disaster Management Evaluation Group at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Also present were Kim Hak-jin, professor of urban engineering at Hongik University, and Ko In-seok, chairman of the National Council of Science and Technology Research Institutes.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the upper deck collapsed at the demolition site of the Seosomun overpass in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, leaving six casualties. On the same day, three workers were buried in soil at a sewer pipe maintenance construction site in Suseo-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Among them, one man in his 60s was transferred to the hospital in cardiac arrest but ultimately passed away.
