As the school term begins, the government inspected hazards around elementary schools and found 210,000 hazards. Of these, the government issued 50,000 administrative sanctions, including criminal charges, business suspensions, and the imposition of fines and penalty surcharges, totaling 50,000 cases.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on Apr. 7 the results of inspections of hazards around elementary schools conducted from Feb. 23 to Mar. 27.
The inspection found a total of 206,535 dangerous or illegal cases. Minor issues were corrected on the spot, and administrative sanctions were imposed, including criminal charges (9 cases), business suspensions, closures, or cancellations (9 cases), and fines and penalty surcharges (46,904 cases, 5.8 billion won).
By sector, regarding traffic safety, more than 46,000 violations of traffic laws, such as illegal parking and stopping within child protection zones, were detected. In addition, 1,685 construction sites near schools were inspected, and 361 risk factors, including failures to install safety fences and inadequate falling-object nets, were identified and ordered to be remedied.
Regarding food safety, 78,203 cooking and sales establishments near schools were inspected, and 50 cases, including displaying or storing products past their use-by dates, were detected, leading to measures such as business suspensions and the imposition of fines.
In addition, 17,128 youth-harmful businesses were inspected, and 824 cases, including sales of youth-harmful substances and the installation of partitions in comic cafes, were detected, resulting in measures such as criminal charges and business suspensions.
Kim Gwang-yong, head of the Disaster Safety Management Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS), said, "To create an environment where children can attend school with peace of mind, we will continue joint public-private management to ensure there are no hazards threatening safety around schools."