The families of the 40 people killed in last week's warehouse
fire in South Korea are to receive average compensation payments of
240 million won (US$256,000) each from the facility's owner, who
faces legal action for allegedly violating safety laws, the
Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency said yesterday.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, which is still
questioning the owner of the refrigerated warehouse, who has only
been identified by her family name Gong, planned to announce an
interim report on what it called the "man-made disaster" later
yesterday, according to Yonhap.
Forty people, including 12 Chinese, were killed and 10 others
injured in the deadly blaze in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, which
ripped through the two-story Korea 2000 warehouse under
construction last Monday.
Most of the victims were daily wage earners, many of whom were
migrant workers from China, working in unsafe conditions.
Among the 40 dead, 19 have yet to be identified, Yonhap said.
"The investigation is going to be completed soon, and we are
preparing for legal proceedings," Park Hak-geun, head of the
investigation team of the provincial police agency, told reporters
on Sunday.
The warehouse owner and several managers will be charged with
violating fire safety laws, he said. Police allege the heavy
casualties were partly caused by faulty safety equipment in the
building.
After late-night talks that continued until early yesterday, the
families of the victims reached a deal with Korea 2000 to receive
240 million won each, with the exception of one family that vowed
to file a lawsuit against the warehouse, Yonhap said.
President Hu sends envoy
Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was visiting Seoul as
President Hu Jintao's special envoy, described the blaze
at Icheon 80 kilometers south of Seoul as a "heart-sickening
incident."
"Many Chinese people come to South Korea for work and they
contribute to the development of South Korea," he said before
closed-door talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon
began.
The South Korean government said it had issued visas to 34
ethnic Koreans in China whose relatives were killed or injured in
the Incheon fire.
(China Daily, agencies January 15, 2008)
