Supreme Court Upholds Four-Year Term for Aricell CEO Over Deadly Factory Fire

South Korea’s Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a four-year prison sentence for the chief executive of lithium battery maker Aricell over safety failures connected to a 2024 factory fire that killed 23 workers and injured nine.

The ruling finalized the appellate sentence imposed on CEO Park Soon-kwan, who was prosecuted under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act for failing to fulfill safety obligations at the company’s plant in Hwaseong, about 45 kilometers south of Seoul.

A district court had initially sentenced Park to 15 years in prison. That punishment was the heaviest imposed on a corporate chief under the serious accidents law since it took effect in 2022, underscoring the legal significance of a disaster that became one of South Korea’s deadliest industrial accidents in recent years.

The law allows business owners or chief executives to receive at least one year in prison or a fine of up to 1 billion won when fatal workplace accidents are linked to failures in required safety and health management. It was enacted to strengthen accountability at the top of companies rather than limiting punishment to lower-level managers or workers.

An appeals court later cut Park’s sentence to four years. It acquitted Park and his son, an Aricell managing director, of a central allegation that they had failed to install an emergency exit on the second floor of the plant. The appellate court found that the relevant safety rules did not expressly require an exit on every floor.

The lower sentence also reflected settlements reached between the company and bereaved families. The Supreme Court’s decision left that appellate judgment in place, bringing the case against Park to a close.

The top court separately confirmed a seven-year prison term for Park’s son. He, too, had initially received a 15-year sentence from the district court before the appeals process.

The final rulings preserve criminal responsibility for Aricell’s senior management while narrowing the punishment from the landmark first-instance sentences. The outcome is likely to remain closely watched by employers, labor groups and workplace-safety advocates because it tests how courts interpret executive duties under the 2022 law.

The Hwaseong fire drew particular attention to the risks surrounding lithium battery production and to the vulnerability of workers in hazardous manufacturing settings. With the Supreme Court judgment, the legal focus now shifts from the disputed emergency-exit requirement to the broader safety failures that supported the convictions.