Lee Orders Strict Action as DN Automotive Faces Lead Exposure and Injection Probe

Lead findings and disputed injections bring presidential intervention

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung ordered a thorough investigation on October 12, 2026, into allegations that DN Automotive's Ulsan battery plant repeatedly gave workers injections to remove heavy metals while describing them as vitamin shots. His intervention follows findings of 68 violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and detailed measurements showing lead exposure reaching 5.5 times the permitted limit in one production process.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor said it had referred the company to police on suspicion of obstruction of business, concluding that injections administered before special health examinations may have interfered with government measures to protect workers. The Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency is investigating. Separately, the ministry imposed administrative fines totaling 46.2 million won and referred the occupational safety violations for prosecution.

DN Automotive denies that the injections were intended to manipulate examination results. The company describes them as part of continuing worker health management, while its safety and health office chief says participation was voluntary. Workers give a different account, alleging that the treatment was misrepresented and, in some cases, accompanied by instructions to take unpaid leave.

The dispute now involves three distinct issues: the amount of lead in the workplace, what workers were told before receiving medical treatment, and whether that treatment concealed exposure during health checks. The president's directive expands attention beyond one factory, with targeted inspections already underway at 14 other battery manufacturing workplaces.

What Lee told investigators to examine

Chief presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said Lee received a briefing from the labor ministry on its actions and future plans before issuing his instructions. He criticized the alleged use of measures harmful to workers to pass workplace assessments despite lead readings exceeding the legal limit by more than five times.

Lee, speaking as president, described the alleged concealment of medical risks and hazardous exposure as a violation of workers' rights. In remarks relayed by Kang, he said:

A company that should protect workers' lives and health concealing the risk of side effects, making workers receive injections and hiding exposure to hazardous substances is a serious human rights violation that can never be tolerated.

He directed the labor ministry and investigative authorities to establish the extent of hazardous substance exposure, the circumstances surrounding the injections and whether health examination results had been concealed. He called for strict action under the law if violations were found.

That instruction is not a judicial finding that the company deceived workers or falsified results. Those allegations remain under investigation. The ministry has, however, already announced separate occupational safety violations and enforcement measures.

Routine checks and detailed measurements diverged

DN Automotive makes lead acid batteries for vehicles. Lead and sulfuric acid are used in production, making workplace exposure checks and special employee health examinations central to monitoring conditions at the plant.

Since 2022, routine workplace assessments reportedly showed lead exposure within permitted levels. Special employee examinations also recorded no suspected occupational disease. Detailed measurements by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, known as KOSHA, subsequently produced much higher readings.

In a loading process involving electrode plates made with lead powder, measurements exceeded the limit by more than five times. In the stacker process, where positive and negative electrodes are separated and stacked, the highest reported reading was 5.5 times the limit. That is 450 percent above the limit, rather than merely 5.5 percent above it.

Kim Boo-wook, a professor of occupational health and safety engineering at Inje University, compared the detailed findings with the routine assessments:

Comparing the highest levels from regular workplace environment measurements with the highest levels from this detailed KOSHA measurement, there is a difference of about tenfold in all cases.

The comparison establishes a substantial discrepancy, but it does not by itself explain its cause. Investigators still need to determine how the assessments were conducted and why their results differed. The reported figures do not include the underlying concentrations, units or sampling conditions needed for an independent comparison.

What workers say happened before examinations

Workers allege that injections were organized before mandatory health checks. A union official said employees typically received one to three injections, with workers in certain processes receiving as many as four, during the one or two months before annual examinations.

Named employee Lee Woo-seong said the injections were presented as vitamin treatment, with claims that they would ordinarily cost 150,000 to 200,000 won and leave recipients feeling refreshed. Another employee, Hyun Sun-cheon, described arriving at a hospital, being asked whether he was from DN Automotive and receiving an intravenous infusion without an explanation of the treatment.

An internal company document reportedly identified workers needing additional chelation treatment. It listed employee names against calendar dates and included entries for third and fourth doses. Such records indicate organized scheduling, although they do not independently establish what each worker was told or whether consent was informed.

One unnamed worker said employees with high lead readings were told to stay home for two weeks without pay and receive chelation injections during that period. Another reported blood pressure rising to 180 and experiencing double vision. These are worker accounts, not confirmed medical findings establishing that a particular drug caused those symptoms.

The total number of people treated, the duration of the practice and the identity of the medication have not been disclosed. Those missing details matter both to the investigation of consent and to any assessment of medical harm.

Why the type of injection matters

The treatment at issue is described as chelation, not vitamin supplementation. Chelation uses medication that binds to certain metals in the body so they can be eliminated, including through urine. Its purpose, medical risks and suitability depend on the drug, the patient's condition and the circumstances of treatment.

The injections described in this case allegedly sought to lower lead in workers' blood before examinations. Kidney damage was identified as a possible treatment risk, but no confirmed diagnosis of such damage among these workers has been announced.

A blood lead level of 30 micrograms per deciliter was cited as a threshold triggering government oversight. A deciliter is one tenth of a liter. That blood measurement is different from the workplace exposure measurements that reached 5.5 times the permitted limit: one measures lead in a person's blood, while the other assesses exposure in the working environment.

This distinction is essential to understanding the allegations. An injection that reduces a blood reading does not remove lead from a production process. It therefore cannot, by itself, explain why workplace measurements were recorded as acceptable. The investigation must address the environmental assessment discrepancy and the alleged alteration of health examination results separately.

How the company responds to the allegations

DN Automotive says the injections were part of an ongoing program to manage workers' health and were not intended to manipulate examination results. Song Jin-wook, the company's safety and health office chief, described participation as a voluntary choice and denied that treatment was compulsory.

That response conflicts with accounts from workers who say the treatment was described as vitamins or linked to instructions about staying away from work. The central issue is therefore broader than whether workers attended a clinic voluntarily. Investigators must also establish whether they knew what medication they were receiving, understood its risks and could refuse without employment consequences.

Kim Ju-young, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, raised the possibility that lead had been removed from workers' bodies in advance of examinations. That is a concern to investigate, not proof of the company's intent.

No court ruling, completed police finding or final epidemiological assessment has been announced. The company's denial and the workers' allegations should remain distinct from the occupational safety violations already identified by the ministry.

Enforcement began months before the public controversy

The labor ministry said it first received information about the allegations in late January. It then checked the claims, conducted safety inspections and arranged detailed workplace measurements. The chronology shows that government intervention preceded the October reporting and presidential directive.

• Since 2022: Routine workplace assessments reportedly recorded acceptable lead exposure, while special health checks found no suspected occupational disease.
• Late January 2026: The labor ministry received information about the alleged practices and began checking the facts.
• April 21 to May 7: The ministry ordered the suspension of processes involving lead exposure.
• September 18: KOSHA's epidemiological investigation evaluation committee approved a group investigation into health effects.
• October 8: A nine member committee was launched to investigate lead exposure and improve working conditions.
• October 11: Public reporting detailed worker accounts and an internal document concerning injections.
• October 12: The ministry announced enforcement measures and the police referral, while Lee ordered a thorough investigation.

The suspension applied to processes involving lead exposure during the specified period. It should not be read as an announced closure of the entire plant or as an order that remained in effect in October.

The 46.2 million won administrative fine is also separate from the criminal investigation. Referral of suspected offenses starts or advances a legal process; it does not establish a conviction or resolve the allegations about deception.

Health investigation will include former workers

KOSHA decided on September 18 to conduct a group epidemiological investigation covering current and former DN Automotive workers, including retirees. The purpose is to establish how lead exposure affected health across the workforce, rather than examining only the employees currently at the plant.

An epidemiological investigation looks for patterns of exposure and illness within a population. In this case, it can address a question that neither a single workplace reading nor an individual blood test can settle: whether workers experienced health effects associated with their employment and exposure history.

The labor ministry also launched the DN Automotive Lead Exposure Investigation and Workplace Environment Improvement Committee on October 8. Its nine experts were recommended by labor, management and government. Three planned divisions will address health, the working environment and epidemiological investigation.

No completion date, participation total or publication schedule has been announced for the group investigation. The number of workers with confirmed harm remains unknown. Including former employees broadens the inquiry beyond current test results, but conclusions will depend on the investigation's findings.

Inspections extend beyond the Ulsan plant

The ministry has begun targeted inspections at 14 other workplaces in the same battery manufacturing sector. Lee also called for close checks on whether similar practices elsewhere were undermining occupational safety and health protections.

A separate lead acid battery factory in Gwangju is under investigation over suspected use of similar chelation treatment. Its identity, the number of workers involved and any enforcement findings have not been disclosed. It is not clear whether that factory is included among the 14 workplaces covered by the targeted inspections.

The broader inquiry will need to distinguish legitimate medical treatment from treatment allegedly used to conceal exposure. In the Ulsan case, the unresolved questions concern consent, medical need, timing, company involvement and the reliability of the checks intended to protect workers.

The immediate next steps are the ongoing police investigation, inspections at other plants and the planned health and workplace inquiries. No hearing date, charging decision deadline or final report release date has been announced. The president has demanded strict action, but the evidence gathered through those processes will determine what further legal and protective measures follow.

Key Points

• Lee Jae-myung ordered a thorough investigation on October 12 into alleged deception over injections at DN Automotive's Ulsan plant.
• Detailed workplace measurements found lead exposure reaching 5.5 times the permitted limit in the stacker process.
• The labor ministry identified 68 occupational safety violations and imposed 46.2 million won in administrative fines.
• Ulsan police are investigating suspected obstruction of business connected to treatment before health examinations.
• Workers allege injections were presented as vitamins. DN Automotive denies manipulating results and says treatment was voluntary health management.
• A group health investigation will include current and former workers, including retirees.
• Targeted inspections cover 14 other battery manufacturing workplaces. No final investigation findings or completion dates have been announced.