After an explosion at Hanwha Aerospace's Daejeon plant killed five people and injured two, it has been confirmed that Building 56 (the cleaning facility), where the accident occurred, was excluded from a fire safety inspection conducted by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). With the disaster occurring at a facility that was not subject to inspection, critics have pointed to potential gaps in the safety management system.
According to reporting compiled by Seoul Economic Daily on Tuesday, the Building 56 cleaning facility, where the explosion occurred, was not included in the fire safety inspection of military explosives manufacturing and storage facilities conducted at Hanwha Aerospace in April by DAPA, fire authorities, and the Ministry of Employment and Labor.
Behind this was reportedly a judgment by DAPA that did not view the cleaning process as part of the propellant (explosive) manufacturing process. At Building 56, cleaning work is performed to remove explosive residue from tools and equipment after rocket propellant is produced. Although it is a step that must be undergone in the manufacturing process, DAPA reportedly did not judge this work as part of the manufacturing process and omitted it from the inspection.
DAPA Commissioner Lee Yong-cheol visited the funeral home where the victims' memorial was set up the previous day, saying, "An unexpected accident occurred at a place that was not subject to safety inspection," and "We will thoroughly prepare measures to prevent even accidents that occur in unexpected areas."
DAPA is currently examining how the cleaning facility was left out of the fire safety inspection and the appropriateness of the classification criteria at the time.
There are also growing voices calling for a re-examination of the safety management system across industrial sites in the wake of this accident. In particular, the bereaved families of Aricell, who experienced a similar fire and explosion disaster, mourned the victims and called for measures to prevent recurrence.
Yang Han-woong, co-representative of the Aricell countermeasures committee, and bereaved families visited Daejeon Yuseong Sun Hospital around 3 p.m. on Tuesday to mourn the victims. As the memorial had not yet been set up at the time, they did not meet the bereaved families directly, but prayed for the repose of the deceased together with monks from the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.
Lee Soon-hee, a representative of the Aricell bereaved families who lost her daughter in the Aricell disaster, said, "This accident is also an explosion accident, just like the Aricell disaster," and "I found it hard to sleep at night, feeling as if my own family, my own daughter, had been sacrificed." She stressed, "I think the Aricell and Anjeon Industries disasters are all the same kind of accident," and "Measures to prevent recurrence must be made as soon as possible."
Choi Hyun-joo, another Aricell bereaved family member, referred to the recent reduction of Aricell CEO Park Soon-kwan's sentence from 15 years to four years in prison, saying, "If punishment for serious accidents had been carried out sufficiently, similar accidents would not have been repeated." Yang also said, "After hearing news of the accident, it did not feel like someone else's affair," and "I visited to mourn the victims with the same heart as the bereaved families."
The Aricell disaster was a fire and explosion accident that occurred at the Aricell factory, a lithium battery manufacturer in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, in June 2024, in which 23 people died and eight were injured. Park Soon-kwan, the Aricell CEO who was subsequently put on trial on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, was sentenced to four years in prison on appeal. The verdict, significantly reduced from the 15-year prison term in the first trial, drew continued backlash from bereaved families and civic groups.
