Seoul Searching: Wake-up Call

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung sacked his Transport Minister last week amid an uproar over the United States decision to cut the safety ratings for Korea's two air carriers. The downgrade was an embarrassing blow for a country preparing to host the world's biggest tourist event next year, the Soccer World Cup. Perhaps, though, it will serve as a wake-up call for Korea, where safety has long taken a back seat to expediency.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration put Korean Air and Asiana Airlines in the same safety category as Panama. No offense to Panama, but that can't be good; Korea's economy is at least 20 times bigger and it's in the OECD. It should have world-class airline safety. The FAA, however, doesn't think it does, so the carriers now can't expand their services in the U.S. or code-share with American airlines. That will cost them millions of dollars in lost business as travelers switch to airlines that can get them to destinations in America more conveniently.

The problems at the airlines started before Transport Minister Oh Jang Seop took the job five months ago. Oh, however, didn't appear to bring a sense of urgency to the task of bringing the carriers up to international standard. What's more, it's hard to avoid the impression that the government doesn't get excited about safety issues until the international community gets involved. Just look at the carnage on Korea's roads: the country has the highest traffic accident fatality rate in the OECD, having recently taken the top spot from Turkey. But it didn't start to do anything about the problem until very recently. It is hard to escape the conclusion that only the approach of the World Cup has stirred the government to action. The gridlock traffic in Seoul will be bad enough, but it wouldn't do to have too many foreigners run over during the tournament.

Korea is not a country with a safety culture. After decades of Japanese colonialism and a devastating civil war, there were understandably other priorities. For a long time, safety was considered a luxury that rich countries could afford, not small countries trying to industrialize at warp speed. That led to some spectacular catastrophes, such as the 1995 collapse of a major department store in Seoul that killed 500 shoppers. And people are still dying because somebody cut corners on fire safety procedures, or didn't put up a decent highway sign, or failed to install circuit breakers in street lamps to prevent them from electrocuting people after heavy rain. Sure, the economy isn't doing too well now. But Korea is a well-off country by any measure. It is time to stop acting like a poor one.