English translation of the original Korean report. Images and source documents may contain Korean text.

A subcontractor employee died after becoming trapped by a paper roll at Hansol Paper’s Janghang plant. The accident occurred eight months after the company appointed a separate CEO in charge of safety, following the referral of CEO Han Kyung-rok to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in connection with a fatal accident at the Sintanjin plant in July last year.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on the 11th, Hansol Paper disclosed the occurrence of a serious industrial accident that day. The accident occurred at approximately 7:20 p.m. on the 10th during a slitting operation in the thermal paper building at its Janghang plant in Seocheon County, South Chungcheong Province. A slitter is a machine that cuts large paper rolls into specified widths. An employee of a subcontractor who was moving paper rolls using a forklift died after becoming trapped by a roll that had come loose.

The company stated that the deceased employee was ‘a worker employed by a subcontractor, not a member of our company’s workforce.’ However, under the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, where a principal contractor exercises substantive control, operation and management over facilities, equipment or premises, its responsible management executives also have obligations to ensure safety and health for subcontracted workers. The accident occurred inside a Hansol Paper plant.

■ Fatalities Recur Despite Referral to Prosecutors, Administrative Fine and Separate-CEO Structure

This was not the first time a worker had died at a Hansol Paper plant. On July 16 last year, an employee in the processing department at the Sintanjin plant in Daejeon fell into the feed opening of a pulp-making machine, known as a pulper, while feeding wastepaper into it and died. At the Janghang plant, a worker in their 20s employed by an affiliated company also died after becoming trapped in machinery in April 2019.

Following the Sintanjin accident, the Daejeon Regional Employment and Labor Office imposed an administrative fine of 21.04 million won on Hansol Paper in August last year for violations including failure to perform supervisory duties, failure to comply with procedures for amending occupational safety and health management regulations, and failure to attach chemical hazard warning labels.

The labor office said it had referred CEO Han Kyung-rok to prosecutors without detention in January this year on suspicion of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act. The plant manager was also referred to prosecutors on suspicion of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Han became CEO in January last year after serving in strategy and marketing at Hansol Paper, as head of its U.S. subsidiary Hansol America, and as head of the Printing and Thermal Paper Business Division from 2022 to 2024. The company identifies Han as a ‘related party of the largest shareholder.’

At a board meeting on March 23, the company appointed Go Min-hyuk as CEO in charge of safety and Chief Safety Officer (CSO), shifting to a structure in which Go and Han serve as separate representative directors. Go joined Hansol Chemical and subsequently worked in Hansol Group’s Corporate Planning Office and as a managing director in the human resources team at Hansol Holdings. Previously, the CSO position had been held concurrently by the heads of the Management Support Division and the Environmental Business Division. Three executives had held the position since 2024.

Han also appeared before the National Assembly 20 days before the accident. On the 21st of last month, he appeared as a witness at the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee comprehensive parliamentary audit and apologized to customers and the public over collusion in printing paper prices.

On April 23, the Korea Fair Trade Commission imposed fines totaling 338.3 billion won on six paper manufacturers that had colluded to fix printing paper prices from February 2021 to December 2024. Hansol Paper’s share of 142.58 billion won was fully waived under the leniency program, which reduces fines for companies that voluntarily disclose their involvement in collusion before others do.

During the parliamentary audit, Han was asked about procedures for compensating those harmed and replied, ‘I am not well acquainted with the specific procedures.’ When questioned about having served as head of the Printing Business Division during the period of collusion, he responded to the effect that he had been unaware of the collusion.

Hansol Paper’s largest shareholder is Hansol Holdings, which owns a 30.49% stake, while Hansol Holdings’ largest shareholders are Hansol Group Chairman Dong-gil Cho and others, with a combined 34.33% stake. At Hansol Paper, Cho serves as an unregistered chairman rather than a registered director, with his responsibilities listed as ‘overall supervision of management.’ Because he is not a registered director, he is not subject to board resolutions in that capacity, and the director liability provisions of the Commercial Act (Articles 399 and 401) do not apply to him.

Cho received 3.691 billion won in compensation from Hansol Paper last year and 2.655 billion won in the first half of this year, comprising 758 million won in salary and 1.891 billion won in bonuses. Hansol Paper’s separate net profit last year was 655.89 million won. In other words, the compensation paid to the chairman alone amounted to 5.6 times the profit the company earned over an entire year.

Hansol Paper stated, ‘We are cooperating with the investigation by the relevant authorities and plan to take the necessary follow-up measures based on the investigation results.’ In its half-year report, the company said that, as measures to prevent a recurrence of the Sintanjin accident, it had changed the feeding methods at seven pulper feed locations and installed safety fences, warning lights and audible alarms. The latest accident occurred at a different plant and involved a different process.