SEOUL, Sept 15, (Xinhua): South Korea will strengthen punishment for industrial accident deaths by adopting fines and suspending business, the employment ministry said Monday. Companies, which annually suffer more than three industrial accident deaths, will be fined up to 5 percent of their operating profit, according to the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

For companies that suffer from multiple industrial accident deaths annually, the business suspension period will be extended from the current 2-5 months, while a construction company's license will be revoked if the builder faces a request for suspension after being suspended twice in the past three years.

Participation in public bidding will be restricted for companies, where serious industrial accidents repeatedly occur, while subtracting points for the companies when selecting a successful bidder. The measures are aimed to cut the number of industrial accident deaths from the current 0.39 per 10,000 people to an average of 0.29 for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members by 2030.