Dongkuk Steel Mill steps up safety and environment training with AI-focused advanced course

Dongkuk Steel Mill is upgrading its in-house training framework for safety and environment specialists. After launching a foundational course last year, the company this year ran an advanced program covering serious accident prevention and AI-based safety management.

Dongkuk Steel Mill announced Friday that it held the advanced session of its "2026 DK Safety & Environment Specialization Training" over two days beginning Thursday at the Dongkuk Steel Group training center "Huinwon" in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.

The course is a follow-up to the "DK Safety & Environment Specialization Program" established last year. The company runs the curriculum as a regular training program to systematically develop personnel with strong safety and environment management capabilities.

The DK Safety & Environment Specialization Program is designed to sharpen the practical skills of safety, environment and ISO officers and raise the overall level of occupational health, safety and environmental management across worksites. Participants come from Dongkuk Steel Mill's head office, its plants in Incheon, Pohang and Dangjin, and its research institute, as well as group affiliates Intergis, Dongkuk Systems and Ferrum Infra. Last year, 27 employees completed the foundational course.

This year's advanced course was structured with a stronger focus on practical application. Key topics included serious accident prevention management, identifying risks under integrated environmental permit requirements, ISO audit readiness, and hands-on practice with D-SaFe — Dongkuk Steel Mill's integrated safety and environment information system used to manage field data on safety and environmental conditions.

The program also incorporated AI-based safety management training. Dongkuk Steel Mill invited Kim Jae-hwan, president of the Korea Safety Management Research Institute, to lead a session titled "AI-Based Serious Accident Prevention in Practice." The module was designed to help field officers understand and apply the latest technological developments, as the use of AI in risk assessment and safety management continues to spread across industry.

Since the Serious Accidents Punishment Act took effect, building a robust occupational health and safety management system and ensuring its implementation on the ground have become increasingly critical. The act was extended to companies with fewer than 50 employees starting Jan. 27, 2024, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and the government has emphasized the need to support smaller workplaces in establishing proper safety management systems.

Dongkuk Steel Mill plans to gradually extend the training to all in-house safety and environment supervisors. Over the longer term, the company intends to broaden the program to outside contractors, raising safety management standards both inside and outside its worksites.

"We aim to strengthen safety and environment management capabilities in line with the times — including AI-driven risk assessment and safety management," said Kim Byeong-hyeon, head of Dongkuk Steel Mill's safety and environment planning team. "We plan to continuously advance our framework around Dongkuk Steel Mill's three safety pillars: Smart safety management, Safe working environment, and Strong safety culture."

Meanwhile, Dongkuk Steel Mill recently surpassed 25 million tons of cumulative section steel output — 29 years after its Pohang section steel factory first began operation in 1997. To mark the milestone, the company held a ceremony at the Pohang plant on June 23 celebrating the achievement and the stabilization of D-Mega Beam production.