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Minister of Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung delivers opening remarks at the inauguration ceremony and first meeting of the Presidential Commission on People's Life and Safety held at the international conference room in the Government Complex Seoul Annex on the afternoon of July 28. / Photo by Reporter Kim Bo-young

The South Korean government has officially launched the Presidential Commission on People's Life and Safety to oversee and coordinate life and safety policies that were previously fragmented across various ministries, including industrial accidents, traffic accidents, and natural disasters.

The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced that it held the inauguration ceremony and the first meeting of the Presidential Commission on People's Life and Safety at the Government Complex Seoul on the afternoon of July 28. The commission is a presidential committee established under the "Regulations on the Installation and Operation of the Presidential Commission on People's Life and Safety" promulgated in May.

As the highest-level body reviewing major national policies to protect citizens' lives and build a safe society, the commission is chaired by the President, with Minister of Interior and Safety Yun Ho-jung and Kyung Hee University Psychiatry Professor Baek Jong-woo serving as co-vice chairs.

This launch signifies that the national system implementing the "right to safety"—stipulated in the Framework Act on Life and Safety enacted in June—into actual policy has entered full operation. Going forward, the commission will comprehensively review life and safety policies as a whole and coordinate interagency cooperation.

The first meeting held on this day was co-hosted by co-Vice Chairs Yun Ho-jung, Minister of Interior and Safety, and Baek Jong-woo, Professor at Kyung Hee University, on behalf of President Lee Jae-myung, who was on an overseas trip.

The commission will comprehensively review and coordinate life and safety policies that had been dispersed across different ministries. It is set to play a role in monitoring and coordinating implementation progress so that safety-related measures can be executed smoothly. In particular, it will also identify safety blind spots and evaluate as well as supplement government measures from an external perspective through appointed civilian expert members.

Life and safety policies previously handled separately by individual ministries—such as suicide prevention by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and industrial accidents by the Ministry of Employment and Labor—will now be monitored and adjusted holistically. Specifically, the commission will be divided into four subcommittees—Life Safety, Disaster Safety, Daily Life Safety, and Victim Support—to review agenda items by field.

Vice Chair Yun Ho-jung emphasized, "With the enactment of the Framework Act on Life and Safety, citizens' lives and safety have transcended mere values to become a right that the state must take responsibility for and protect," adding, "We will fulfill the state's fundamental duty to protect the lives and safety of the people by focusing on prevention rather than post-disaster cleanup."

Vice Chair Baek Jong-woo said, "The Framework Act on Life and Safety stemmed from the wishes of disaster victims and bereaved families to build a society where no one has to suffer the pain of recurring disasters again," adding, "Centered around the Presidential Commission on People's Life and Safety, government and private sectors will communicate and cooperate to create a wave of change that minimizes preventable deaths and damages."

                                                                                                           Kim Bo-young