The Ministry of Employment and Labor, in collaboration with the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, announced Tuesday the rollout of 20 safety signs, or pictograms, designed to help foreign national workers easily identify workplace hazards and precautions, regardless of proficiency in the Korean language.

These pictograms will be distributed to workplaces employing foreign workers particularly in manufacturing industries. Those pictograms were created based on feedback collected from manufacturing workers, including foreign employees, through on-site surveys, the Labor Ministry said.

This initiative gained momentum after a devastating fire in June at Aricell, a battery manufacturing plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, raised alarms about the vulnerabilities of foreign national workers. The fire, which claimed 23 lives -- including 18 foreign workers -- sparked calls for improved safety measures tailored to non-Koreans, who often face language barriers in understanding workplace risks.

The Labor Ministry said it plans to develop and distribute an additional 80 safety pictograms next year.

In addition, the Labor Ministry said that it plans to amend the law to expand mandatory occupational safety education, also known as occupational health and safety education, which is currently mandatory only for foreign workers entering the country under the Employment Permit System (E-9 and H-2 visas) and provided exclusively to them, to include those on other visa types, such as overseas Koreans (F-4) and marriage migrants (F-6).