South Korea’s top court finalizes Aricell CEO’s four-year term over factory fire

South Korea’s Supreme Court on October 20 finalized a four-year prison sentence for Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan over safety failures linked to a 2024 fire at the battery maker’s factory in Hwaseong. The fire killed 23 workers and injured nine, according to Yonhap and Xinhua. The ruling leaves in place a sentence that an appeals court had reduced from 15 years.

The court also upheld a seven-year prison term for Park’s son, both outlets reported. Xinhua, in a report published by China Daily, said the court upheld an 800 million won fine against Aricell as a company. Park’s son had originally received a 15-year term from the district court, according to Yonhap.

How the Aricell sentences changed on appeal

The appeals court cleared Park and his son of a charge concerning a missing emergency exit on the factory’s second floor, Yonhap reported. It said safety rules did not specifically require exits on every floor. Yonhap also reported that the appeals court considered the company’s settlements with bereaved families when reducing Park’s sentence.

The 2024 Hwaseong factory fire

The fire broke out on June 24, 2024, at Aricell’s plant in Hwaseong, about 45 kilometres south of Seoul, according to Xinhua. It reported that lithium battery explosions triggered the blaze. The 23 deaths and nine injuries made the factory’s safety arrangements central to the criminal case against Park and his son.

Yonhap described Park’s son as a managing director of Aricell, while Xinhua called him its chief operating officer. Both identified him as Park’s son and reported that the Supreme Court finalized his seven-year prison term. The outlets described the emergency-exit charge differently; the published accounts do not include the full Supreme Court ruling.