Prime Minister Kim: "Next Year’s Fire Safety R&D Budget Set at 50.3 Billion Won... Five-Year Plan to Be Established"

Prime Minister Kim Presides Over National Affairs Ministers' Meeting
"Distribution of Standalone Smoke Detectors in Aging Apartments"

Prime Minister Kim Minseok announced on the 3rd, "Next year, we will significantly increase the budget for fire safety research and development (R&D) to 50.3 billion won, a 64.9% increase compared to the previous year," adding, "We will also establish and implement a five-year plan for fire safety R&D."

Prime Minister Kim made these remarks while presiding over the 3rd National Affairs Ministers' Meeting held at the Government Sejong Complex on this day. The meeting discussed four agenda items: ▲Measures to strengthen fire safety R&D ▲Countermeasures to prevent recurrence of apartment fires in Busan and Gwangmyeong ▲Support measures for providing reliable meals to office workers ▲Plans to improve unreasonable regulations.

Prime Minister Kim Minseok is speaking at the National Affairs Ministers' Meeting held on the 3rd at the Prime Minister's Office video conference room in the Government Sejong Complex. Photo by Yonhap News

At the meeting, Prime Minister Kim emphasized, "It is urgent to strengthen fire safety capabilities to improve on-site response," and stated, "Proven advanced technologies from the defense sector, such as drones, robots, and sensors, should be actively transferred and utilized in the field of fire safety." He also stressed, "Every minute and every second at a fire scene is directly linked to the lives of our citizens," and pledged, "We will ensure a clear improvement in on-site response capabilities."

Regarding the incident in June, where a child sleeping alone died in a fire at an old apartment in Busan, he said, "We must comprehensively consider not only reinforcing fire safety facilities, but also strengthening safety education and improving care systems." He added, "In addition to improving facilities, such as distributing about 1.5 million standalone smoke detectors, we will provide on-site fire safety education to approximately 3,000 elementary schools located in areas with a high concentration of aging apartment complexes."

On the support measures for providing reliable meals to office workers, which will be piloted in areas with declining populations and industrial complexes where dietary conditions are poor, he stated, "The pilot project will be verified and analyzed over a three-year period starting next year."

Prime Minister Kim also remarked, "Regulatory reform is not a new topic, but there are still regulations that can only be described as unreasonable," and stressed, "They must be corrected quickly." He continued, "We will continue to identify and improve outdated regulations going forward."