You are absolutely right on the safety issue you have mentioned in your post. Errr, should I say the absolute lack of regard for safety. I don't know how long or what it will take before Koreans start to take safety seriously. True, any maniac in any country could start a fire like that in the Taegu subway, however, the real problems lie in the fact that the subway car lit up the way it did. The fact that they used highly flammable materials when constructing the subway cars and that it laughably (tragically, disgustingly) passed safety standards here just shows you how bad it is. I have been in Korea for quite some time teaching and I have seen one disaster after another. I was about a year late in arriving to be here when a major chunk of the Sungsoo Bridge just disintegrated. I was here for the Sampoong Department Store collapse. I was here also when the Taegu subway system blew up due to a gas explosion during construction. I was also here when a high number of kindergarten students burned alive during the Sealand disaster. They were all terrible, terrible incidents yet they continue to happen over and over again. The Sealand disaster was incredibly disgusting in the fact that they were using converted transport containers as a sleep over camp/park for kindergarten classes. All of the material used in the interior construction was highly flammable however, just think about the temperatures inside one of these cans. When the fire started the kindergarten supervisors / teachers(?) were outside drinking soju and having some sam gyup sal. This was a place that in no way should have received any type of approval whatsoever. The same goes for the other disasters. It scares me to think of how many other disasters lie out there in the form of shitty, dangerous construction, lack of training and terrible safety standards. I heard that the subway train operator in Taegu, I believe from car 1080 actually took the master key out of the control and took off from the first car when he spotted fire. Taking out the master key would prevent the doors from locking. By merely turning the master key which was already in place when operating the subway the doors to all of the cars would have opened and at least some people could have escaped. Where in the hell was this guys head? Don't they receive any type of safety training here? Just 3 examples to sum the state of safety standards here in Korea and they have been mentioned before: 1) Motorcylcles and scooters are permitted to drive on sidewalks. What the hell is going on with this? 2) Ignormauses who smoke in elevators. The same question applies. 3) Red lights in traffic that have absolutely no meaning to drivers here. Until Koreans start to take these basic, elementary things seriously Korea will continue to be regarded as the Disaster Capital of the World. These are things that we see everyday. Infractions that should in no way occur, yet they are done here without any second thought. Paranoia, fear has got me these days, don't want to go to any KOEX type of public place or a department store. No way out in case of some accident. Koreans are very bright people when it comes to solving a math problem or making money. I really just wish they would use some basic common sense and get basic priorities safe. Every person in this country should be afforded the right to live with some degree of safety. Its my opinion that when Koreans start taking basic things like driving or even walking on the sidewalk and they decide to correct the current state at which these 2 things are conducted in Korea then the country will be on its way to seriously contemplating safety issues here. I always joke that South Koreans have no reason to fear North Korea. If North Korea were smart they would just leave the South alone to self destruct due to all of the man made disasters they create. Really wish this were not the case. Enough said.