Hanwha vice chairman could be named as suspect in deadly Daejeon explosion

DAEJEON — Labor authorities and police are considering whether to book Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act over the explosion that killed five workers at Hanwha Aerospace's plant in Daejeon on June 1, investigators said Thursday.

At an interim briefing on the case, the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency and the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office said they had not ruled out the option of booking Kim, who heads Hanwha Aerospace's strategy division.

So far, only Hanwha Aerospace CEO Son Jae-il has been booked under the workplace accidents law, which can hold senior executives criminally liable for fatal accidents at their workplaces. Kim, according to Hanwha Aerospace, is in charge of "long-term business" such as "global business, export and discovering future industries" and was not hierarchically responsible for running the plant. The labor office said, however, if the seized documents and witness accounts establish his connection to the explosion, they will book Kim as well.

Police have booked two people — Ga Jae-woong, who heads the Daejeon plant, and one other executive — on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, and have barred them from leaving the country. Company CEO Son is also under a travel ban.

Since the accident, investigators have carried out three joint forensic examinations and a series of raids, and they are analyzing more than 5,700 seized documents and electronic files. They have questioned 32 people, which includes CEO Son, plant head Ga, plant officials, workers and bereaved relatives.

Investigators have also sent 17 items to the National Forensic Service, among them a tool suspected of setting off the blast. It is a stick- or hoe-shaped implement used to scrape sludge from inside the tanks.

Police expect the exact cause to become clear only after the forensic service completes a detailed analysis. For now, based on the site examination and worker interviews, they are keeping several possibilities open, including dry sludge left over from cleaning propellant, friction, static electricity and impact.

Fire officials and others had raised the possibility that the explosion began while pipe valves were being cleaned. The Daejeon labor office called that "one of several possibilities."

"The site was completely burned in the blast, so we still need to determine what the ignition source was and where it started," a labor official said.

Police have focused on the cleaning work underway at the time.

"We believe there is a strong chance the explosion happened while workers in Building 56's cleaning room were cleaning the tanks and filtering equipment," a police official said.

Workers who had been in the building also offered similar accounts. 

"It looks like the first explosion started in the cleaning machine," workers told police.

Pipes attached to the machine are usually cleaned by an outside contractor, while the inside of the machine is handled by Hanwha Aerospace employees. A manual for the work exists, investigators found.

Building 56, where the explosion happened, is an unpermitted structure, and police said charges could grow depending on whether Hanwha Aerospace was aware of the illegality of the facility but went ahead with the work anyway. More people could be booked as a result. Police also plan to investigate the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, which oversees Hanwha Aerospace.

"We plan to decide whom to book after weighing our analysis of the seized materials, the statements of those involved and the forensic service's findings," a police official said. "Given how serious this is, we will identify the cause through a rigorous investigation."

The explosion tore through the plant in Yuseong District at about 10:59 a.m. on June 1. Five workers were killed. Another was left with burns over their entire body, and a third suffered minor injuries. The plant has a history of deadly explosions: Blasts there in 2018 and 2019 killed five and three workers, respectively.

BY SHIN JIN-HO [[email protected]]