Highest Sentence of 7 Years and 6 Months Requested for Those Responsible for the Gwangju Hakdong Disaster

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The construction officials indicted for causing the 'Gwangju Hakdong Disaster,' which resulted in 17 casualties, have been sentenced to a maximum of 7 years and 6 months in prison.

According to the legal community on the 13th, the Gwangju District Court's 11th Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Park Hyun-soo) held a final trial for seven individuals, including those from the construction company of Hakdong Redevelopment Maintenance Zone 4 (HDC Hyundai Development Company), subcontractors and sub-subcontractors (Hansol, Dawon ENC, Baeksol), and supervisors, who were charged with professional negligence resulting in death.

The prosecution requested a prison sentence of 7 years and 6 months and a fine of 5 million KRW for Seo (58), the site manager of Hyundai Development Company.

They requested a 5-year prison sentence each for Noh (58), the public works manager, and Kim (57), the safety manager of Hyundai Development Company, and a 7 years and 6 months prison sentence for Kang (29), the site manager of subcontractor Hansol.

For Kim (50), the site manager of Dawon ENC, a 5-year prison sentence was requested, for Jo (48), the CEO of Baeksol, a 7 years and 6 months prison sentence, and for Cha (60, female), the supervisor, a 7-year prison sentence was requested.

Fines ranging from 30 million to 50 million KRW were requested for the three companies involved.

They were indicted on charges including causing the collapse of a building under demolition?a basement one floor and five floors above ground?in the Hakdong Redevelopment Project Maintenance Zone 4 on June 9 last year, due to negligence in safety management and supervision throughout the construction, which resulted in the deaths of nine city bus passengers and injuries to eight others.

The prosecution argued that the defendants bear significant responsibility for the poor construction that did not consider the horizontal load shifting from the rear to the front during building dismantling, which caused many casualties; the severity of the damage; and the shifting of responsibility between the primary and subcontractors, and requested that the court sentence according to the prosecution's demands.

The prosecution found all of them directly or indirectly responsible for ▲construction methods that did not consider horizontal and vertical loads (top-down crushing using soil piles), ▲demolition ignoring work procedures contrary to the plan (crushing from the rear and lower floors first), ▲demolition proceeding in a 'ㄷ-shaped' form vulnerable to loads, ▲increased floor load on the first floor and failure to reinforce the basement, ▲lack of safety management and supervision for unauthorized dismantling, and ▲excessive water spraying.

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