SEOUL (AFP) – The CEO of a South Korean lithium battery maker has been arrested over a factory fire that killed 23 people in June, a local court told AFP Thursday.
Park Soon-kwan, the CEO of Aricell, was arrested late Wednesday over the deadly incident, a spokesperson for the Suwon District Court said.
According to Seoul’s labour ministry, Park’s arrest is the first time a CEO has been arrested for violations of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, a law implemented in 2022 to hold employers accountable for workplace disasters.
In a statement, the ministry said Park was arrested on “charges of causing the deaths of 23 people by employing unskilled contract workers to handle materials with a high fire risk”.
Police have also previously blamed the company’s “gross” safety failures for the deadly blaze.
The fire was caused by a rush to meet a supply deadline and a failure to address indications of dangerous quality defects in the batteries, according to police.
Aricell had also manipulated data to meet its military procurements and had been cheating on quality inspections since 2021, they said.
The blaze was one of South Korea’s worst factory disasters in years.
