President Oh Young-sik of the Korea Railroad Corp.(Korail)

President Oh Young-sik of Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail) took office as CEO of the railway corporation at the Korail headquarters in Daejeon on Feb. 6. Unlike his predecessor’s inauguration ceremony, President Oh exchanged greetings with Korail staff members while touring their offices. 

Despite its history of more than 100 years, Korail still has a vestige of an inflexible corporate culture, he said. Oh promised to devote himself to reinventing its corporate culture by touring sites and offices first and turning to “horizontal communication management.” The president revealed his determination to spare no efforts to enhance the morale of the railway family by touring sites and offices and lending an ear to the voices of railway people.

President Oh also toured a tent of fired Korail trade union personnel who were protesting the day he took office. He stressed a social grand compromise consisting of labor-management ties, saying that organizational solidarity cannot be achieved by excluding those who have different views. 

He also hinted at an intention to introduce a system of appointing a trade union representative to its board of directors, designed to help it lend an ear to the voices of the field. 

President Oh emphasized publicness of the railway in which all the people need to utilize it freely, regardless of physical ability, income, social strata or region. 

He said Korail will strive to realize social values by strengthening accessibility of the railway and the competitiveness of the railway industry through innovation. He said he will come up with policies to effectively change the quality of people’s life to the extent they can sense a difference. 

As for the Seoul-Gangneung High-Speed Railway that went into public service before the opening of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Feb. 9, Oh said Korail played a pivotal role in Korea’s hosting the Olympic extravaganza. A North Korean sports delegation and foreign players utilized the KTX to participate in the Olympiad, attracting global attention. 

“It is up to the Korail not to miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance,” he said. The future of Korail and its international competitiveness will depend on the restoration of railways disconnected between the two Koreas and a railway-centered logistic regime, Oh said. 

He said that Korail will strengthen its internal capabilities to brace for the advent of an era when trains will cross the Demilitarized Zone and head for the Continent via North Korea. Oh focused on ensuring the safety of the railway. 

“Protecting people’s safety and lives is the top task of state and public entity,” he said. 

Oh said that Korail will establish a “human-oriented” safety regime departing from the safety paradigm focused on outsourcing and efficiency. 

He reconfirmed that Korail will ensure safety via advanced technologies in accordance with the smart railway safety system buildup plan the government is seeking to implement. President Oh said the Korail is committed to ensuring safety through close cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), KR and other related organizations. 

The railway network’s adopting of advanced IT will bring about more technology benefits to people, and smart trains, smart operation and smart maintenance & repair are global trends, he said. Oh said the Korail will strive to have advanced information technology creep into all areas of the railway industry. 

He stressed the need for securing sustainable growth engines to provide public services to people in a stable fashion. To this end, he said, the Korail will ramp up organizational management innovation and strengthen its marketing capabilities. 

President Oh Young-sik takes a look around Korail’s Gangneung Workshop during a recent tour of the workshop. (Photos: Korail)