Following a deadly fire that killed 23 workers in South Korea, the CEO of a lithium battery maker has been sentenced to 15 years in prison
As previously reported by the FPA, the blaze broke out on the second floor of Aricell’s manufacturing plant in Hwaseong city in June 2024, after lithium batteries exploded.
Fire investigators reported that the factory floor became engulfed in flames “about 15 seconds after a small amount of white smoke was seen billowing from a battery”. It is understood that at the time of the fire, the factory had been housing approximately 35,000 battery cells on its second floor. The incident led to the death of 23 people and injured eight others.
As reported by Reuters, Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan was charged under South Korea’s industrial safety law, which “subjects senior executives to prison terms of more than one year when found guilty in the event of fatal accidents”.
According to BBC News, this is the longest jail term that has been imposed under the law, with prosecutors having initially sought a 20-year sentence for the fatal incident.
The son of Park Soon-kwan, a senior executive at the company, was also handed a 15-year sentence and fined one million won.
Suwon District Court found that Park had “failed to ensure safety measures were in place”, adding that the fire was “not an unpredictable” accident given the conditions of the factory.
It was found that the company had violated proper safety protocol and training for its workers, many of whom had been hired temporarily, and had “failed to address signs of dangerous quality defects in products in a rush to meet supply deadlines”.
Earlier in September 2025, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung stated more needed to be done to protect workers from fatal accidents in the workplace, with the country expected to introduce tough new regulations and fines for employers who fail to ensure proper health and safety.