527 Facilities Fail to Submit Safety Inspection Results for Five Consecutive Years; Only 4 Fined

Including 41 in Seoul... "Omitted because they didn't know inspections were required"
KALIS only sent official letters... No follow-up action
Mo Kyungjong: "Inspect sites and overhaul the system"

More than 500 facilities nationwide, including 41 in Seoul, failed to submit legally required safety inspection results over the past five years. Only four of them were fined. Critics say a management gap persisted because authorities failed to properly identify facilities subject to safety inspections.

The ceiling and walls of an elevated pedestrian walkway in a commercial building in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, have peeled away, exposing the interior. The facility is one of 527 locations for which no safety inspection results were submitted over the past five years. Oh Jieun, reporter.

According to data submitted by the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS) to the office of Rep. Mo Kyung-jong of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, 3,265 facilities had not submitted their safety inspection results for the first half of last year by this past June. Facilities are classified as Type 1, 2 or 3 according to their size, and 176 of the facilities were Type 1, including large bridges and tunnels. In particular, 527 facilities had failed to submit inspection results for nine consecutive rounds, from the first half of 2021 through the first half of 2025.

According to KALIS, a total of 188,315 Type 1, 2 and 3 facilities were registered in the Facilities Management System (FMS) as of this year. There were 13,414 Type 1 facilities, 115,308 Type 2 facilities and 59,593 Type 3 facilities. Under the Facilities Safety Act, legally regulated facilities, including ▲bridges ▲tunnels ▲water treatment plants and ▲large buildings, must undergo regular safety inspections and submit a results report to the FMS within 30 days of completing an inspection. Violations can incur a fine of up to 20 million won.

The problem is that no proper follow-up measures were taken even though inspection results had not been submitted for an extended period. According to Rep. Mo’s office, only four of the 527 facilities that had failed to submit results for five consecutive years were fined, or about 0.76%. Among the 20,762 facilities that had failed to submit safety inspection results at least once over the past five years, only 73 (0.35%) were fined.

Of the 527 facilities that had failed to submit results for five consecutive years, 41 were in Seoul. Seongbuk-gu had the most, with 17, followed by Yeongdeungpo-gu with 12, Dongdaemun-gu with four and Gwanak-gu with two. The facilities included apartment complexes, markets and commercial buildings closely connected to residents’ daily lives.

Seongbuk-gu had still identified no facilities with missing safety inspection results. Some district offices, including those in Yeongdeungpo-gu and Dongdaemun-gu, said the facilities had been omitted from lists of sites under their management, so they were unaware that the facilities were subject to safety inspections. District offices notify the people responsible for each facility to conduct safety inspections and then collect the results. Their explanation was that practical errors in managing facility lists had caused omissions in the system. Conversely, they said that some facilities that should have been removed from the list of sites subject to inspections, for reasons such as redevelopment, remained in the system.

KALIS stressed, however, that facilities listed in the system as having failed to submit safety inspection results had not necessarily gone without inspections. It said the FMS data alone made it difficult to distinguish between cases where an inspection had been conducted but the results were not entered into the system and cases where no inspection had been conducted. A KALIS official said, "The reasons for non-submission are difficult to identify uniformly because the management bodies and circumstances differ by facility," adding, "Depending on the criteria used for compilation, facilities that simply registered their results late may also be included in the figures for non-submission." The official added, "The overall rate of compliance with safety inspection requirements among facilities under management is high."

Rep. Mo said, "The FMS needs to be reviewed comprehensively to ensure that safety inspection reports are not missed," adding, "KALIS should not just send official letters and consider the matter settled; it should take practical steps to improve the system, such as visiting sites where there are concerns about potential casualties."

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