The First Nationwide Prosecution for Serious Accidents: Duseong Industry's Sentencing Trial Set for September
by Lee Seryeong
Published 05 Jul.2023 16:21(KST)
Updated 06 Aug.2025 21:34(KST)
The sentencing trial for the CEO of Duseong Industrial and others, who were indicted for violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, has been postponed to September.
The Criminal Division 4 of Changwon District Court in Gyeongnam was scheduled to receive the prosecution's sentencing recommendation at the trial held on the 5th, but the process was delayed because the response from the Ministry of Environment, which the prosecution had requested, had not yet arrived.
After the trial in April, the prosecution requested a fact-finding confirmation letter from the Ministry of Environment regarding why this case was not considered a chemical accident, but has not yet received it.
With conflicting requests from Duseong Industrial’s side to conclude the trial regardless of the Ministry of Environment’s response, and from Yuseong Chemical’s side to continue the next trial, the court ended the trial after 10 minutes and set the next date.
The court decided to hold the sentencing trial on September 13 at 2 p.m.
Members of the Metalworkers' Union Gyeongnam Branch and lawyers Lee Hwan-chun and Kim Tae-hyung, who attended the trial that day, said, “We thought the sentencing would be made today, so we feel disappointed, but it seems to be an unavoidable procedural matter,” and added, “We will wait for the trial results.”
According to the court, in February last year, 16 employees of Duseong Industrial suffered toxic infection damage caused by the hazardous substance trichloromethane.
The CEO of Duseong Industrial was indicted in June last year on charges of failing to take safety and health measures, such as not installing a local exhaust ventilation system while handling trichloromethane.
Daheung R&T, which used the same cleaning agent as Duseong Industrial and left a local exhaust ventilation system with weak airflow in the workplace, causing 13 employees to suffer toxic infection damage, stood trial for violating the Industrial Safety and Health Act.
Yuseong Chemical was indicted on charges of selling cleaning agents containing toxic chemicals to the two companies.
At the 8th trial held on April 26, the defendants collectively stated, “If we had known that trichloromethane, a component of the cleaning agent, was a hazardous substance, we would not have used that cleaning agent.”
The affected employees requested severe punishment, saying, “We are still suffering from toxic substance poisoning, such as a sudden increase in liver enzyme levels.”
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