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| Investigators from the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency enter the agency building, carrying seized articles from a Hanwha factory in Daejeon, Friday, a day after an explosion killed three workers at the factory./ Yonhap |
By Jung Hae-myoung
The regional labor office in Daejeon launched a special inspection, Monday, of an ammunition factory owned by Hanhwa, where an explosion killed three workers last Thursday.
Inspectors from the office and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency are examining the facility, especially the rocket propellant manufacturing process where the accident took place, to find the exact cause of the explosion and check safety measures there.
The labor office ordered the factory to stop operations immediately after the incident.
Even after the inspection, resuming operations will only be possible only when the factory owner sets up safety plans, and inspectors from the regional labor office give approval after confirming their effectiveness.
However, reopening the factory is expected to take a considerable amount of time, as the inspectors are struggling to find the exact cause of the explosion.
It was not the first time Hanwha's Daejeon factory underwent the labor office's special inspection ― in May, five workers died and four were injured in another explosion, and the office at the time found 486 cases of safety violations and ordered improvements of them.
