Hanwha Aerospace launches independent safety committee after Daejeon blast

Hanwha Aerospace announced Monday it will launch an independent Safety Culture Innovation Committee composed of 11 outside experts, a move prompted by the June 1 explosion at its Daejeon plant that led the company to overhaul its internal safety systems.

The 13-member committee is designed to ensure independence, expertise and objectivity. It will be chaired by Moon Il, a distinguished emeritus professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Yonsei University, and will include 10 other outside specialists along with two employees nominated by the company's labor union.

Moon is a recognized authority in process safety and chemical engineering, having served as president of the Korean Institute of Hazardous Materials and as head of the National Research Foundation of Korea's national policy research division. Hanwha Aerospace plans to appoint two experts each from the fields of systems management, safety culture, industrial safety, chemical safety and military explosives by the end of this month. Two union-nominated worker representatives will also sit on the committee to ensure frontline employees' views are reflected in its work.

The committee will conduct a ground-up review of safety management across all worksites, identify structural vulnerabilities in the company's organization, systems, procedures and field operations, and draw up a comprehensive overhaul of its occupational health and safety management system.

In its first phase, the committee will assess hazardous-material inventories and process risks at facilities handling explosives and other dangerous substances, then conduct a detailed review of standard operating procedures and safety management frameworks before formulating corrective measures.

The second phase will focus on producing improvement plans covering the company's overall safety management system — including its response to serious industrial accidents, safety investment and budget allocation, and the organizational and decision-making structures governing safety. The committee will actively consult with frontline workers at each stage to discuss safety improvements. Based on its findings, the company will move quickly to implement necessary corrective actions and plans to hold a joint labor-management "New Safety Culture Innovation Declaration" ceremony in September.

Hanwha Aerospace has steadily increased its safety and environmental investment in recent years. Spending on general safety and environmental improvements rose from 53.8 billion won in 2023 to 111.4 billion won in 2024 and 247 billion won in 2025 — more than doubling each year. The 2024 and 2025 figures represented 7 percent and 12 percent of operating profit in their respective years. The company plans to spend 452.4 billion won ($298 million) on safety and environmental improvements this year.