Employment ministry publishes 37 fatal workplace accident cases and safety failures

South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor published on 15 October 2026 the list of serious industrial accidents disclosed for the first half of 2026, naming 37 workplaces and the safety-management failures behind each death. The disclosure appears in 관보 제21340호 (Official Gazette No. 21340) as 고용노동부공고 제2026-475호, signed by the Minister of Employment and Labor under Article 13 of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and Article 12 of its enforcement decree.

The notice is a statutory public-disclosure mechanism: once a fatal accident case has been finally adjudicated, the ministry must publish the workplace, the accident and its cause. The 37 numbered entries cover accidents that occurred between 30 October 2020 and 21 July 2025, each marked as having a final conviction (형 확정). For every case the gazette records the workplace name, the date and place of the accident, the number of victims, and whether a serious accident had been reported at the same site within the previous five years.

Most entries involve a single fatality. Two are multi-victim: 주식회사 영풍 (Youngpoong) at its Seokpo smelter, where one worker died and three were injured, and 주식회사 현우 (Hyunwoo), where two workers died and one was injured.

The workplaces named

• 주식회사 일광폴리머 (Ilgwang Polymer), Seocheon, South Chungcheong — 17 March 2022; one death, caused by an explosion inside a temperature-humidity chamber during drying work.
• 주식회사 영풍 (Youngpoong), Seokpo smelter, Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang — 6 December 2023; one death and three injuries from acute poisoning by leaked arsenic trihydride.
• 주식회사 대호종합건설 (Daeho Construction), Bupyeong, Incheon — 6 September 2023; one death after a suspended-scaffold rope came loose and the worker fell 23 m.
• 주식회사 현우 (Hyunwoo), Damyang, South Jeolla — 1 October 2024; two deaths and one injury when an aerial work platform mounted on forklift forks fell 7.9 m.
• 주식회사 케이피텍 (KP Tech), Yongin, Gyeonggi — 16 July 2022; one death after a worker was caught in a roller.
• 주식회사 퍼시픽오션월드 (Pacific Ocean World, formerly Taepyeongyang Marine Industry), Busan — 25 March 2023; one death by drowning when the air supply failed during a dive.
• 주식회사 당진종합건설 (contractor) and 주식회사 유일 (subcontractor), Dangjin, South Chungcheong — 7 October 2024; one death in a fall through an opening.
• 주식회사 두손건설 (contractor) and 해봉산업건설 주식회사 (subcontractor), Seocho, Seoul — 6 February 2024; one death when a sling belt snapped.
• 태광정밀 (Taekwang Precision), Gangseo, Busan — 25 April 2025; one death when a one-tonne mould fell on the worker.
• 영조스틸 (Youngjo Steel), Sasang, Busan — 17 February 2025; one death when a worker was crushed between an excavator and a scrap truck.

Recurring causes

The ministry attributes the accidents to failures of the safety and health management system required by Article 4 of the enforcement decree, cited in almost every entry. The specific omissions repeat across the list:

• Missing fall protection — guardrails, safety nets, anchor points and safety belts — in work at height.
• Unsafe operation of machinery and vehicles: forklifts, cranes, excavators, conveyors, presses and cutting machines.
• No work plan and no designated work supervisor for heavy-load handling and construction-machinery tasks.
• Failure to provide, or to enforce the use of, protective equipment and safety training.
• Failure to isolate hazardous energy or substances, including confined-space and chemical risks.

Why it matters

The publication exposes the named companies to public scrutiny and gives workers, unions and labour inspectors a documented record of what went wrong at each site. It also shows how often the same basic failures — a missing guardrail, an unsecured load, an untrained operator — recur across construction, manufacturing and logistics.

Source: 관보 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Korea), 제21340호, 15 October 2026, 공고 (Notices), p. 256 (official reference: 고용노동부공고 제2026-475호).