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| A customer on Tuesday reads a notice stating that NC Department Store Yatap branch in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, will close temporarily until its operator verifies the building's safety. Yonhap |
By Park Jae-hyuk
E-Land Retail has drawn criticism once again for its safety negligence, after it was revealed that its NC Department Store in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, had stayed open despite cracks in the ceiling.
On Monday afternoon, customers started noticing the cracks in the ceiling on the second floor of the building, which has eight floors aboveground and seven basement levels. The same day, a glass panel for controlling smoke in case of fire also fell from the ceiling on the first floor of the building.
The retailer, however, did not close the department store. Metal poles were placed to support the ceiling.
After some customers uploaded photos of the department store on internet forums, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Won Hee-ryong, who is accompanying President Yoon Suk Yeol on his trip to the UAE and Switzerland, said he asked Seongnam Mayor Shin Sang-jin to take necessary measures.
"The department store's operator had to close down and evacuate customers until it verifies safety," he wrote on Facebook late on Monday. "Its decision to stay open proves that Korean society is still careless about safety."
The minister also mentioned the Sampoong Department Store collapse in 1995, which killed at least 502 people, as the department store's operator had not evacuated its customers despite awareness of cracks in the building.
As criticism intensifies against E-Land Retail, the company belatedly sent a letter to Seongnam's municipal government saying it would shut down the problematic department store. Seongnam also ordered the retailer at 4 a.m. on Tuesday to prevent customers from entering the building until after an emergency safety inspection.
"In accordance with our principle to prioritize the safety of our customers, we decided to close the store until we finish checking the safety of the building," E-Land Retail said.
In 2018, the company was embroiled in a controversy for keeping the same department store open, after a ceiling on the second floor collapsed. The accident came just three days after a similar one occurred at NC Department Store's Suwon branch in Gyeonggi Province.
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