Deaths from industrial accidents rebounded in South Korea last year, the labor minister said, despite the Moon Jae-in government’s pledge to halve the number of workers killed in the line of duty during its term.

Minister of Employment and Labor Lee Jae-kap said industrial disasters and work-related accidents took the lives of 882 workers in 2020, marking a rise of 27 deaths from the previous year.

The number of workers killed on the job had increased from 964 in 2017 to 971 in 2018 before declining to 855 in 2019. (Yonhap)