Songpa-gu Receives 4th Certification as an 'International Safe City'

15 Years Since 2008, 4 Consecutive Official Commemoration Ceremonies Held... Emerging as a Global Leader in Safety
Recognized for Safety Efforts Preventing Injuries Among Vulnerable Groups from Children to Elderly

Songpa-gu (District Mayor Seo Gang-seok) received the ‘4th International Safe City Certification’ from the International Safe Community Certification Center (ISCCC) and held a proclamation ceremony on the 12th, firmly establishing its status as a world-leading safe city.

The ‘International Safe City’ certification is a system that recognizes cities as global standard safe cities through rigorous evaluation, targeting those that continuously strive to create safe local communities.

The certification, conducted through ISCCC’s strict evaluation, is renewed every five years. Since the first certification by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008, the district has been certified four consecutive times up to this year, extending its reputation as a global safe city for 15 years by another five years.

After the 3rd certification in 2018, the district established the strategic goal of ‘building a 24-hour safe urban environment,’ reorganized its administrative organization, and has been successfully implementing a total of 139 safe city projects across six sectors. In particular, during the certification evaluation conducted from March to June this year, the district was highly praised for its proactive efforts to understand and prevent injury risk factors among vulnerable groups such as children and elderly living alone.

This 4th recertification is the second among 243 local governments nationwide and the first achievement for a basic local government in South Korea.

Accordingly, on the 12th, a proclamation ceremony celebrating the 4th International Safe City certification was held at Songpa Academy. Many officials, including Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, Lu Pai, Chairperson of the ISCCC Asia Federation, and district council members gathered to celebrate the four consecutive certifications with various performances such as signing the certification agreement, presenting the certification plaque and emblem, and the certification proclamation ceremony.

Meanwhile, the district has shown remarkable achievements not only in this certification but also in resident safety. In last year’s regional safety rating evaluation conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the ratings for crime and suicide areas each rose by one level compared to 2018, and the district ranked 9th in the 2023 Social Safety Index among 184 cities, counties, and districts.

Seo Gang-seok, Mayor of Songpa-gu, who attended the International Safe City proclamation ceremony, stated, “Songpa-gu is the only basic local government to receive the ‘International Safe City’ certification four consecutive times, ensuring safety from disasters and diseases without harm.” He added, “Since the top priority of local administration is to enhance the safety of residents from disasters, we will do our best to build a safe city by firmly establishing disaster response and prevention systems.”