On November 3, officials including the head of the Industrial Safety and Health Headquarters at the Ministry of Employment and Labor visited the Daebul Industrial Complex in Yeongam.

The visit was intended to prevent industrial accidents through surprise inspections of complexes where fatal serious accidents have occurred repeatedly.

Just three hours after the surprise inspection, 29-year-old worker Shin died in an accident at a shipyard in Yeongam.

Shin was found alone inside a hull where he had been performing welding work, crouching and leaning against a wall.

It was reported that high concentrations of carbon dioxide were detected inside the hull at the time.

Although gas concentrations should have been measured frequently during the work, Shin was not even carrying a gas detector.

Basic safety rules such as ventilation and the two-person work system were not observed either, yet work continues to be carried out.

[Kwon Oh-san / Director of Occupational Safety and Health, Gwangju-Jeonnam Chapter of the Korean Metal Workers' Union: Despite it being a serious accident resulting in a fatality, operations have not been suspended yet, which is why the bereaved family and our union are currently outraged.]

The bereaved family still finds it hard to believe the death of a caring older brother who even looked after pocket money for his younger sister who is three years younger.

[Shin's Younger Sister: Even now, when I lie down to sleep, I keep imagining my brother lying there alone, crouching and dying in that place, and I just cannot understand how my brother could have been left alone in such a dangerous place.]

With Shin's death, the total number of workers who died while working at the Yeongam industrial complex over the past two years, last year and this year, has risen to 17.

(Reported by Huh Jae-hee of KBC | Video by Sohn Young-gil of KBC | Produced by SBS Digital News)

KBC