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The [South Korean] government’s failure to keep workplaces safe for industrial workers remains a glaring blot on the country’s otherwise historical achievement of having successfully transformed what was once an agrarian nation into a first-rate industrial power. Big factory fires have become an almost an annual occurrence in the past two decades, according to the mass-circulation Hankook Ilbo newspaper, with workers - both locals and foreign – losing lives numbering as many as 282 since 1998...

Against stated policy and rule, worksite safety at Aricell had last been checked by government officials five years ago, despite the fact that the factory was handling highly inflammable material. Adding to the danger was the fact that workers there had come from China with practically no experience of working at industrial factories...

... The immigration authorities are becoming acutely concerned over the need to update immigration laws to provide more flexibility in dealing with the presence of foreign laborers. The present system restricts foreign workers, once inside the country, from moving out or changing their worksites, to require new labor contracts each time it expires from one workplace.

The present restrictive system, critics say, has helped produce a rising number of illegal foreign workers who are forced to accept oppressive working conditions. According to published reports, the number of illegal foreign workers has risen from around 390,000 to 415,000 in the past five years. To complicate matters, at least 170,000 of them are young children dependent on illegals, raising the problem of their education and welfare...