Last week, when I stepped inside the newly built Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, east Seoul, for an interview with one of the tenants, I was asked to visit the security section and deposit my driver’s license. I was also told to wear a red identification pass stating that I was a member of the filming staff.

“There’s no use complaining to me. I only take orders,” was what the security guard told me when I fired questions at him about the tight security and reminded him that I was not there to shoot a commercial. 

The tenant I met told me she had been informed of the security protocol only a day before. “I tried to tell them to knock off on the security, but as I am only a tenant here, I have to follow the rules even if they seem to make little sense,” she said apologetically.

Demanding identification is nothing unusual when you are visiting a corporate headquarters, and The Korea Herald headquarters is no exception. And sometimes when you visit sensitive areas, visitors are issued special passes to get access.

But what was mind-boggling about Lotte World Mall is that it’s a shopping mall that is open to the public. When I was asked to provide my identification, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the media was being placed under unnecessary surveillance.

Another tenant, who declined to be named, suggested that the beefed up security may have something to do with the slew of recent articles that highlighted the so-called “shoddy construction.”

The reports say that cracks were detected on the ceilings and floors of the 87,183 square meter-shopping mall, which is being promoted as Asia’s largest shopping center.

Other safety concerns arose when a worker at the mall was hit on the head by a metal compartment that fell from four or five stories above. Furthermore, there were also reports that some of the nuts and bolts holding the glass handrails were missing. As such, instead of being screwed on, the glass had been glued to the rails.

Lotte ― the nation’s fourth-largest conglomerate ― explained that the cracks on the floor were a part of its retro-themed design, and that the metal compartments that fell on the construction crew was an error.

But this is not all. We have all heard about the sink holes that emerged in the area, that may have been caused by reckless and excessive drilling and plumbing during construction of the mall, and how Lotte has been ordered by Seoul City to do everything it can to curb the traffic congestion in the neighborhood.

What a way to celebrate the opening of what the company calls one of its most epoch-changing projects!

We understand that it must surely be a painful time for Lotte, and that perhaps the construction worker was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that more bolts and nuts were properly screwed on than glued-on, and that cracks are a fashion-forward approach in designing the nation’s trendiest shopping mall.

However, if there is anything that may pose a danger to the public, it must be reported, even if it is a tiny detail. When you think about all the senseless accidents that have taken the lives of so many innocent people in this country, it is much, much better to be safe than sorry.

Placing the press under high surveillance so they cannot write damaging stories is far from helpful in securing public safety.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)