A South Korean court has sentenced the chief executive of lithium battery maker Aricell, Park Soon-kwan, to 15 years in prison following a deadly fire at the company’s Hwaseong plant in June 2024. The blaze, which killed 23 workers, 18 of them foreign nationals and injured eight others, was described by the court as “an anticipated disaster.”
The ruling marks the harshest punishment yet under South Korea’s industrial safety law, which allows for at least a year’s imprisonment or fines of up to 1 billion won ($717,000) for fatal workplace incidents. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term, arguing company executives had altered the plant’s layout in ways that hampered workers’ chances of escape.
Park’s son, a senior executive at Aricell, also received a 15-year sentence along with a fine of 1 million won. Investigators concluded that Aricell lacked adequate safety measures and failed to properly train its workforce.
Despite issuing an apology after the disaster, Park denied responsibility for safety failures. At the time of the fire, some 35,000 lithium battery cells were stored on the factory’s second floor, where they were being inspected and packaged. The blaze proved especially difficult to fight, as lithium reacts dangerously with water, forcing firefighters to use sand to bring it under control after several hours.
The tragedy has intensified scrutiny of South Korea’s battery industry, a global leader in lithium cell production for electric vehicles and consumer electronics. President Lee Jae Myung has acknowledged that workplace safety remains a serious national challenge and vowed to strengthen penalties against companies found responsible for fatal accidents.
