Minister Yoon Ho-jung of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said at the National Assembly audit on the 14th that he was "truly sorry for causing great inconvenience to the public" over the fire at the National Information Resources Service that occurred in the previous month, adding, "We will do our best to ensure the disruption is resolved as soon as possible, even a day sooner."
The Minister said in his opening remarks at the Public Administration and Security Committee's audit that "the Ministry of the Interior and Safety takes this matter very seriously," making the remarks above.
The Minister presented the ministry's key tasks as follows: ▲ strengthening the foundation for an artificial intelligence (AI) democratic government ▲ overcoming the crisis of regional extinction ▲ enhancing disaster response capabilities ▲ strengthening the foundation for social integration.
He said, "In line with a government of popular sovereignty, we will promote the routinization and institutionalization of communication with the public and proactively provide services that people need," adding, "Through building a pan-government AI common infrastructure, we will lead a grand AI transition in the public sector, and we will also actively open and utilize public data essential for the private sector's AI development."
He continued, "To overcome the pressing crisis of regional extinction, we will favor non-capital areas in fiscal projects and local government tax reductions, and we will reorganize various balanced development policies around people, jobs, and villages so that they lead to tangible population inflows."
As a plan to strengthen the capacity for self-sustaining development in the regions, he said, "We will support specialized growth in the five mega-regions and three special zones, and in collaboration with relevant ministries, we will continue to review measures that allow greater autonomy in securing resources and managing finances," adding, "To realize substantive local autonomy, we will strengthen residents' participation and choice, and promote the introduction of the National Autonomy Decentralization and Balanced Growth Council to firmly establish a partnership between the central and local governments."
The Minister also said, "By enacting the Basic Act on Life and Safety, we will establish the state's fundamental responsibility for ensuring the public's life and safety, and we will improve the social disaster management system to prepare for unpredictable new and complex disasters," adding, "To respond to the changed patterns and scale of disasters in the era of the climate crisis, we will subdivide disaster types and criteria and, using advanced technologies such as AI, we will upgrade disaster and accident prediction and situational management. We will expand disaster response organizations and personnel and actively promote the expansion of incentives as well."
He also said, "We will firmly support guaranteeing the rights of victims of social disasters and tragedies and their recovery, and we will resolve historical issues with a future-oriented approach," adding, "We will spare no continued attention and support to spread a culture of giving and volunteering."