SEOUL KOREA - The Seoul metropolitan city government warned on January 5 that it would respond in harsh measures including forceful closure unless Lotte does something to stop a series of safety accidents in its new Lotte World Mall building. Since being allowed to open tentatively in October last year, the Lotte World building has had numerous problems including water leak in its aquarium, vibration in the movie theater, a worker's death from fall, injury of a shopper from a fallen glass entrance door.
A city government official said these problems were due to lack of a disaster response system as well as inadequate measures to prevent accidents in the first place. The most important things for Lotte to strengthen, the official said, are rapid response, transparency, and professionalism.
The city government also stressed that the company needs to work with external experts in improving its safety measures. In addition, it must establish a system by which the company reports an incident immediately after it occurs. In addition, it needs to improve its public relations functionality so that it can relieve concerns of Seoul citizens through media briefings.
For example, the recent report on cracks appearing in its parking floor had little to do with the building's structural problem. Still Lotte did not bring in building structure experts immediately, nor did it make statements to clarify the issue, which led to unfounded worries among residents living nearby and the citizens at large.
