Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Minister Suh Wook presided over defense safety management education session

At the education session, participants discussed concrete ways to push forward with enhanced safety effectively;

Exemplary cases and self-developed assessment system were introduced;

Education session served as momentum to take safety management work to the next level

On May 2, Minister of National Defense Suh Wook stressed his “expectations for the firm establishment of a safety-first culture and an accident prevention system in the military.”

Suh made the statement while presiding over the ‘trial education session for the advancement of the defense safety management work,’ which was held in the main hall of Gyeryongdae military headquarters.

The education session was attended by 200 people, including the Army Chief of Staff, the Navy Chief of Staff, the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, the chief of the military unit under the direct control of the Ministry of National Defense (MND), and safety officers from the MND and each armed service.

The Monday education session was held with the aim of confirming the implementation plan for safety management work and helping each unit push forward with the relevant work in an effective way, with the growing attention on the prevention of safety accidents following the enforcement of the ‘Act on Severe Accident Punishment (Severe Accident Punishment Act).’ The Severe Accident Punishment Act provides that the owner and CEO of any place of business with more than 50 regular employees shall be punished in the event of the occurrence of a severe industrial accident, such as one involving death.

The education session started with a report on the current status of the safety management work being carried out by the Gyeryongdae Service Support Corps, and was followed by each armed service’s introduction of applicable activities to other units and institutes. Significantly, the education session received a good response from participants, presenting examples of safety management and a self-developed risk assessment system applied based on the characteristics and conditions of each unit.

Our military assessed the progress of the safety management work of each office of the ministry, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and derived additional improvements after the government’s enforcement of the Severe Accident Punishment Act on January 27. Based on the findings of field inspections, each unit is also carrying out various measures to prevent safety accidents, including △ improvement of risk assessment, △ preparation of a safety accident prevention manual, and △ collection of opinions related to safety and health, under the supervision of the commander.

The military has also continued to strengthen activities to encourage a sense of safety and conduct field inspections for the establishment of a safety management system by checking the expansion of expertise improvement training, reinforcement of manpower, and support for the expansion of budgets.

Examples include the ‘invitational lecture on construction site safety education 2022’ recently hosted by the Jeolla-Jeju Facility Group under the command of the Defense Installations Agency, with a special guest lecture working with the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety in the Honam district, ‘field education on electrical safety management’ for the unit in the ROK Army Engineer School, and ‘safety education’ hosted by the Navy’s Second Fleet Command for its 150 civilian employees.

“At the trial education session, we confirmed exemplary cases of safety management. This gives us momentum to take safety management work to the next level,” said Park Mi-seon, chief of the Office of Safety Management of the Republic of Korea Defense Communication Command, who participated in the education session.

The ministry said in a statement that it will “continue to work on advancing the safety management work to ensure that a better safety culture can serve as the basis for improvements in combat power.”

By Chae-Mu, Im <lims86@dema.mil.kr >

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