LH omits five apartments missing rebar in its announcement

On July 30, when the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) unveiled the outcomes of an extensive examination of apartment complexes featuring flat slab underground parking lots, it omitted the mention of five apartments where rebar was absent. LH opted to categorize this rebar deficiency as minor, refraining from publicizing it despite being aware of it. This came to light two days after it became evident on Wednesday that ten complexes had been overlooked in the comprehensive assessment. This sequence of events has instigated skepticism towards the corporation, fostering a contentious debate regarding matters of ethical responsibility.

Lee Han-joon, the president of LH, convened an urgent press briefing on Friday at the LH Seoul headquarters. During the conference, he conveyed, “Following a meticulous evaluation of the flat slab apartment complexes, it came to light that out of a total of 20 complexes, five were identified to have rebar deficiencies. Additionally, I was informed that complexes encountering issues in only three or four pillars (out of several hundreds) were excluded from the list, given their completion of internal reinforcement measures and the absence of any ensuing concerns.”

Furthermore, it has come to light that an additional complex was inadvertently excluded from LH's examination on the same day. On July 30, LH disclosed that 15 out of the 91 surveyed complexes displayed rebar deficiencies. However, on Wednesday, a revelation surfaced confirm‎ing the exclusion of 10 more complexes from the assessment, with the subsequent identification of an extra complex that had been inadvertently omitted. Consequently, a total of 20 out of the 102 LH complexes have been found to have actual rebar omission issues.

LH leadership, led by President Lee, assumed accountability for the incident and expressed their intention to resign. President Lee articulated, “I will adhere to the directives of the personnel authority. I have initiated inquiries and examinations with the involvement of the police, the Fair Trade Commission, and the Board of Audit and Inspection. Given that this situation has originated from fundamental issues within LH, we will undertake organizational streamlining and functional dispersion.”


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