Supreme Court Affirms 4-Year Prison Term for Aricell CEO over Deadly Fire

The Supreme Court has finalized a four-year prison sentence for Park Soon-kwan, the CEO of lithium battery manufacturer Aricell, following a deadly factory fire in 2024. KBS World Radio reports that the top court upheld the appellate court's ruling regarding the incident, which resulted in 23 deaths.

The fire occurred at a factory in Hwaseong, located 45 kilometers south of Seoul. According to The Korea Times, the blaze killed 23 workers and injured nine others. Park had previously received a 15-year sentence from a district court for violating safety obligations under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

The appellate court reduced the sentence to four years and cleared Park and his son, a managing director, of a charge involving the failure to install an emergency exit on the factory's second floor. The court observed that safety regulations do not specifically mandate exits on every floor, according to The Korea Times.

Brief written by urgent.news from KBS World Radio, The Korea Times — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.