South Korean courts on Friday sentenced suspended prison terms for two men accused of starting the massive wildfires in the southeastern region in 2025, the largest ever fires in the country that led to 28 deaths and over 36,000 people evacuated.
The Daegu District Court found a 55-year-old defendant surnamed Shin guilty of violating the Forest Protection Act, and sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for three years. The Daegu resident inadvertently started a fire on March 22 while tending a family grave in Anpyeong-myeon, Euiseong-gun, North Gyeongsang Province.
A 63-year-old defendant surnamed Jeong was also found guilty of the same violation and given two years in prison, suspended for three years. He had been burning garbage while tending his orchard in Angye-myeon of the same county, also on March 22.
The two offenses were relatively minor, but they led to a series of wildfires in the surrounding regions that continued until March 30. The southeastern region had other wildfires that also affected parts of Jeolla, Gangwon, Chungcheong provinces and even parts of the greater Seoul area, resulting in 33 deaths.
"Wildfires inflicted extremely grave damage, but the defendants could not have predicted the link to other fires due to very dry weather at the time," the court said, saying the direct link between the defendants' crimes and the death and injuries in the fire was not sufficiently proven.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
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