BAI (Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea) inspection report indicate 8 of 9 expressway tunnels in South Korea has inadequate fire resistance design and do not meet the current safety standards.

Donga writes more in English: https://www.donga.com/en/article/all/20240423/4898056/1

On 23 April (today), Korea Expressway Corporation give their answer in press release:

"The road tunnel fire resistance guidelines were established by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in April 2021, and are applicable to projects after the date of publication. The nine reported tunnels began construction (December 2016 to April 2020) before the enactment of the fire resistance guidelines, so they are not subject to the road tunnel fire resistance guidelines.

However, regarding the matters pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection, our corporation is carrying out services to establish the Korea Expressway Corporation's own fire resistance standards (target tunnels, applied construction methods, etc.). After establishing the standards as soon as possible, we plan to comprehensively review and take action on ways to secure fire resistance performance"