Ulsan named top performer in national safety management evaluation

Ulsan has been named an outstanding agency in the Ministry of Interior and Safety's comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the 2025 National Safety Management Implementation Plan.

The evaluation, conducted under Article 25-2 of the Framework Act on Disaster and Safety Management, covered 628 agencies nationwide, including 29 central government ministries, 17 metropolitan and provincial governments, and municipal and county governments along with other disaster management agencies.

The assessment marked the first year of the government's Fifth National Safety Management Master Plan (2025–2029) and was structured around four criteria: adequacy of plan formulation (40 points), implementation performance (40 points), feedback systems (20 points), and a bonus category for identifying potential risk factors (5 points).

Ulsan scored 90 points or above — well above the city-level average of 82.1 — placing it among four metropolitan and provincial governments nationwide alongside Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province and North Jeolla Province. The city also joined Incheon as one of two outstanding agencies in a separate "meta-evaluation," in which the Ministry of Interior and Safety assessed the adequacy of local governments' own evaluations of their subordinate agencies.

The result carried added significance given that national average scores generally declined this year amid tightened quantitative and qualitative assessment criteria, making Ulsan's year-on-year score improvement the largest in the country.

The city attributed the result to revising its internal evaluation criteria for five districts and disaster management agencies to raise local safety standards, and to holding regular joint consultations with operational departments and related agencies to monitor implementation of safety management plans. "We will continue building a safety net to make Ulsan a safe city where residents can live with peace of mind," the city said.

Building on the evaluation results, Ulsan plans to further develop best practices and address shortcomings as it prepares its 2027 safety management plan. The city also said it would expand AI- and digital technology-driven intelligent safety infrastructure to proactively prevent major disasters at industrial complexes and high-risk energy facilities.