National Resources Management Agency Director Lee Jae-yong, regarding the "national resources fire" incident, said, "Looking back, I think there were institutional and perceptual vulnerabilities in the work of moving batteries," adding, "I think we need to fix them."
At the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee audit on the 14th, Lee gave this answer to People Power Party lawmaker Ko Dong-jin's point that "there is a manual for fires in the national resources battery room, but there was no manual to follow when relocating batteries."
Ko also pointed out that instructions such as "discharge the battery to 30% or less before starting work and use insulating equipment" were not in the specifications (rules to be followed during construction work). Typically, during battery transfer work the state of charge must be reduced to 30%, but police recently found in their investigation that at the time of the fire the state of charge was close to 80%.
Ko further noted that Ilseong Gyejeon, selected as the battery relocation contractor, relied mostly on entry-level technicians who had obtained their qualifications less than a year earlier and had little industry experience, and that although the State Contracts Act allows for a limited competitive bid to use experienced firms, National Resources selected the contractor through an open competitive bid. In response, Lee said, "I think there was a lack of consideration for the particularity of battery relocation work in terms of contractor selection, contract conditions, and bidding methods."
To Ko's question, "At the time of the fire, did you check via closed-circuit (CC) TV whether the workers took advance measures such as cutting power to individual batteries?" Lee answered, "Because it was shown from a distance, it was difficult to identify whether they turned off the main power first and then shut off each rack breaker (auxiliary power)."
Meanwhile, at the audit that morning, the ruling and opposition parties continued to clash over President Lee Jae-myung's response to the national resources fire. People Power Party lawmaker Park Su-min said, "President Lee Jae-myung made no moves on Sept. 27, the day after the national resources fire on Sept. 26," adding, "The presidential office's emergency response meeting was not held until 10:50 a.m. on the 28th."
Minister Yoon Ho-jung of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety explained, "Around 6:30 a.m. on the 27th, the initial suppression was achieved, and we focused on achieving full extinguishment," adding, "Because extinguishing takes priority, we devoted our full efforts to it that day."
Park also pointed out, "It was only at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 28 that he came after finishing a variety show shoot and held a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting, and according to attendees at the time, 'the president asked very basic questions.'" The Minister said, "The president was continuously checking the suppression situation through phone calls or Telegram throughout the night."
People Power Party lawmaker Park Deok-heum noted that when Lee was leader of the Democratic Party, he "rebuked, asking 'Where was the president?' during the Sewol ferry disaster" and "said 'immediately dismiss the Minister of the Interior and Safety' during the local governments' administrative network outage." In response, the Minister answered, "I do not think this situation is comparable to the Sewol ferry disaster."
The ruling party pushed back against the opposition's criticism, saying it "obscures the essence." Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Ham Byeong-do said, "Criticism should be based on whether the president acted in line with the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety or crisis management guidelines; trying to frame it with a variety show is a political offensive," adding, "The entire Cabinet, including the president and the prime minister, followed the guidelines and ordered an active response. Now is not the time for political strife, but for recovery."