State not responsible for Pohang earthquake: Daegu court

An appellate court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that two Pohang earthquakes were triggered by an experimental geothermal power plant.

The appellate trial at the Daegu High Court dismissed the earlier ruling that ordered the state to compensate up to 1.5 trillion won to almost 500,000 Pohang residents affected by the earthquakes in 2017 and 2018.

The court agreed with the lower court’s decision, which found two earthquakes — a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in 2017 and a 4.6 magnitude quake in 2018 — were brought on by geothermal energy generation.

But the Daegu High Court reportedly argued that there must be intent or negligence on the part of public officials or agencies for the state to be held liable for damages under the State Compensation Act.

Since the first trial ruling was completely overturned by the higher court, the government will not be required to pay any compensation.

A district court had previously ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the defendants to pay either 2 million or 3 million won in compensation per affected Pohang resident based on the number of earthquakes experienced.

Pohang Mayor Lee Kang-deok was quoted by local media outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun as saying that he would like to express deep regret over the court's ruling.

"The court's decision failed to fully reflect Pohang residents’ severe distress and fell short of the just ruling that the people hoped for,” said Lee.

The civic group, which filed the damage claim suit against the state, reportedly announced that it would appeal the case to the Supreme Court.