Park Won-seok Announces 'Four Promises for Safe Yeongdeungpo'

Park Won-seok, candidate of the Justice Party for Suwon (Yeongdeungpo District), announced on the 30th a policy platform titled <Park Won-seok's Four Promises for Safe Yeongdeungpo> composed of student safety, women's safety, family safety, and safety education.

Park's first safety-related policy pledge is to establish an 'eco-friendly school improvement grant' within the national education finance allocation system that the central government provides to local governments to ensure students can learn in safe school environments.

According to Park's confirmation with the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, as of last year, among Suwon's 388 kindergartens and elementary, middle, and high schools, 237 schools in Suwon were built with asbestos finishing materials, a Class 1 carcinogen that poses health risks—the highest number among local governments in Gyeonggi Province. (Goyang 201 schools, Seongnam 192 schools, Bucheon 167 schools, Anyang and Gwacheon 151 schools, etc.)

'Asbestos-free schools' without detected asbestos (less than 50㎡ of asbestos material) numbered only 153, or 39%.

Park's second safety-related policy pledge is to expand the installation of public unmanned safe package boxes in Suwon for women's safety.

In the Seoul metropolitan area, a significant number of apartment complexes are installing in-complex package boxes, and numerous local governments including Seoul, Incheon, and Hwaseong are expanding public package boxes in resident centers and libraries. However, Suwon has public safe package boxes installed only at City Hall and district offices, limiting their use significantly.

As the third safety policy pledge, Park announced the introduction of a complete labeling system for genetically modified organisms (GMO) foods to ensure family food safety and strengthening import conditions for Japanese seafood products.

Public concern is growing over indiscriminately spreading GMOs, but current law only requires GMO labeling for processed foods when GMO genetic material remains.

For example, even soy sauce manufactured from genetically modified soybeans does not require GMO labeling if soy protein does not remain. In such cases, consumers cannot verify whether the product was made from genetically modified soybeans.

Park Won-seok stated, "I will revise the Food Sanitation Act to expand GMO labeling targets from 'main ingredients' to all 'ingredients' and mandate labeling of GMO use even when the final product contains no genetically modified DNA or protein, thereby implementing a complete GMO labeling system for all products using GMO."

Furthermore, Park pledged to prevent radioactively contaminated food from reaching family dinner tables, stating, "I will further strengthen import restrictions on Japanese agricultural and marine products contaminated by radioactive leakage from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant explosion."

Five years have passed since the Fukushima nuclear accident, yet radioactive materials continue to leak into the ocean at 300–400 tons daily. Although the government has imposed import bans on marine products produced in areas surrounding Fukushima, Park noted that cases of false country-of-origin labeling for Japanese seafood are increasing.

As the fourth safety policy pledge, Park Won-seok announced plans to build a '119 Safety Experience Center' and introduce additional 'mobile 3D safety experience buses' to strengthen 'visiting safety experience classrooms' for accident prevention and pre-education.

According to Park's confirmation with the Ministry of Public Safety and Security, five safety experience centers (two in Seoul, one each in South Chungcheong, North Chungcheong, and North Jeolla provinces) are currently operating, with one under construction in Busan. However, Gyeonggi Province, the country's largest local government by scale, has no safety experience center installed.

Park also stated, "I will additionally purchase 'mobile 3D safety experience buses' capable of providing safety experience education and strengthen visiting safety experience classrooms." Currently, three 'mobile safety experience vehicles' (in Bundang, Hwaseong, and Uijeongbu) operate in Gyeonggi Province but cannot meet surging educational requests.

Park Won-seok stated, "Safety depends most on prevention and pre-education," adding, "Pre-safety education is necessary for young students and elderly citizens."