S. Korea’s Lee, injured as a child laborer, cracks down on workplace death

South Korean Kim Yong-ho thought he would die within seconds after a 200-kilogram (441-pound) industrial press at a Hyundai Steel plant sprang to life during maintenance and crushed his legs and back.

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It was 2019, and Mr. Kim said he thought the heavy machinery around him had been switched off as he made repairs.

“I was flattened like a squashed frog in a roadkill,” he said. “I couldn’t breathe for a few seconds.”

A quick-thinking colleague saved his life by alerting the machine’s operator, said Mr. Kim, now 39.

Haunted by his own injuries as a child laborer, South Korea's new President Lee Jae Myung — who crushed his finger and arm making rubber and later baseball gloves — has vowed to lower the country’s above-average rate of industrial accidents in what he calls “workplaces of death.”

So far, his administration has raided companies, increased spending to prevent industrial accidents, and expanded workplace protections to subcontracted laborers, among other initiatives. His critics, however, say he is punishing companies — not proactively protecting workers — and they believe his pro-labor rhetoric is nothing more than repackaged populism.

In its 37 trillion won ($27 billion) budget for 2026, the Labor Ministry increased spending to prevent industrial accidents and said it would fine companies up to 5% of their operating profit if they recorded three deaths or more in a year.

The president has also visited firms to press for improved safety and set up a special team to investigate industrial accidents. Some companies have already reacted by shortening work shifts, sacking officials, and pausing projects.

Labor Minister Kim Young-hoon, a former train operator and labor activist, said the new policies would not be effective unless attitudes change about work.