A local construction union has raised claims that Lotte Construction should reconstruct Lotte World Tower on the ground that the company used inferior fire resistant products preventing fire between floors.
The Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions said in its statement on Tuesday that "Lotte Construction should immediately reconstruct its fire resistant products for the sake of customers’ safety."
Earlier in May, the union conducted performance test of the company’s fire resistance products at Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology together with Lee Mi-kyung, a lawmaker of the main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy. The test result showed that four out of five products are substandard.
Later, Seoul Metropolitan government and Lotte Construction jointly conducted an additional test of the fire resistant performance late last month and the company again failed the test.
The union said, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport should immediately conduct the relevant test and Seoul City should order reconstruction of the tower based on the result."
Lotte Construction said the problem fire resistant products were used for six percent of Lotte World Mall and that was not used for the 123-story Lotte World Tower.
