Yoon Seok-dae, president of Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), has been booked and is under investigation on charges of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in connection with last year's industrial accident at Unmun Dam in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, the Seoul Economic Daily has confirmed.
According to labor circles on the 20th, the Daegu Regional Employment and Labor Office last month booked Yoon and "A," who served as head of the Unmun Regional Office at the time of the accident, on charges of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act under prosecutorial direction. The North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency also referred the on-site supervisor and the contractor's site manager to prosecutors on the 24th of last month.
The "Unmun Dam accident" occurred in 2024 when two diving workers were sucked into an intake during seismic reinforcement work on the Unmun Dam intake tower in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, and died. The deceased workers were employed by a subcontractor of prime contractor Daewoo E&C. K-water has been carrying out the "Unmun Dam Safety Enhancement Project" with Daewoo E&C since 2018.
Notably, a fatal accident had previously occurred at the same site. In February 2021, a diver in his 30s working for a subcontractor was killed after being buried under sediment at the same construction site.
The Serious Accidents Punishment Act determines management responsibility based on whether a person is "in a position to make substantive decisions" regarding the duty to ensure worker safety. Accordingly, the investigation has expanded beyond the prime contractor to include K-water management as the nominal project owner.
Yoon has faced questions over his expertise since taking office in 2023. At that year's National Assembly audit, lawmakers pointed out that he had no career experience in water resources, civil engineering, or environmental fields. Yoon served as a policy committee member in the secretariat of former President Yoon Suk-yeol's campaign during the 20th presidential election.
A K-water official, however, explained, "The Unmun Dam Safety Enhancement Project is a turnkey project in which the contractor handles the entire process from design to construction, and under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, K-water is not the contracting party."
