Last year's electrical safety construction inspection showed that 71.6% of electrical equipment was inadequate.

Last year's electrical safety construction inspection showed that 71.6% of electrical equipment was inadequate.

“At the very least, we need to recheck whether the identified issues have been resolved.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jaeyoung Lee = It was discovered that there was a hole in 'electrical safety' at local festival sites that use a lot of electricity due to lighting and performance equipment.

According to data received from the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation by Park Soo-min, a member of the People Power Party of the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly on the 15th, the number of cases pointed out as having electricity-related problems in the festival site safety inspection jointly conducted by the corporation and local governments last year was 1,344 out of 1,877 cases (906 festival sites) subject to inspection, reaching 71.6%.

The most common cases (711) were problems with ground fault breakers and switches, such as not being properly installed to prevent electric shock, and 343 and 342 cases were problems with insulation, ground resistance, and wiring.

The rate of nonconformity in festival electrical safety inspections increased to 47.2% (51 out of 108 cases) in 2023, 51.7% (116 out of 224 cases) in 2024, and 71.6% (1,344 out of 1,877 cases) last year.

Considering that the nonconformity rates in inspections of social welfare facilities and traditional markets were 39.3% (70 out of 178 cases) and 3.0% (534 cases out of 17,914 cases) respectively as of last year, there is a huge hole in the electrical safety of the festival site where as many people gather as the market.

A particular problem is that professional organizations are not confirming whether electrical safety issues have been resolved and the festival has proceeded.

The Korea Electrical Safety Corporation said, “Festival safety inspections are carried out in a way that is supported by receiving requests from local governments, so we do not conduct inspections on our own without a request,” and added, “There has been no case of re-inspection after being judged inappropriate in a joint inspection with local governments.”

The number and scale of local festivals are increasing.

According to a report analyzing local festivals by the Nara Life Research Institute last February, there were 1,214 local festivals last year, a 37.3% increase from 2019. By size of festival budget, the number of festivals budgeted over KRW 1 billion increased by 98.7% between 2019 and 2025, with budgets of less than 50 million won (30.6%), more than 50 million won but less than 100 million won (46.2%), more than 100 million won but less than 300 million won (29.9%), more than 300 million won but less than 500 million won (53.2%), and more than 500 million won but less than 1 billion won. The increase was noticeable, with less than (7.2%).

Rep. Park Soo-min pointed out, "As many people gather at festivals, even small problems can cause major accidents," and added, "At the very least, a procedure must be established for a professional organization to re-examine whether the identified problems have been resolved."