An executive of Samsung Electronics Co. apologized on Thursday for his “careless” comments about a recent gas leak at the company’s chip factory.

Jun Dong-soo, who heads the memory division of Samsung’s semiconductor business, reportedly told reporters that he “just has to make money” when asked about the hydrofluoric acid gas leak at the company’s chip plant last week.

“I sincerely apologize for causing a fuss by making careless comments,” Jun said via a public letter of apology he posted on the company’s official blog. “I had meant that since environment and safety experts have been deployed (on the leak site), I will do the best on my part to keep the business going strong.”

He said that he fully recognized his responsibility for his actions, saying that he understood how the remarks could have caused misunderstanding.

The toxic gas leak took place last Thursday at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor plant in Hwaseong, 60 kilometers from Seoul, injuring three people. The accident marked the second poisonous gas leak at the factory in three months.

The first gas leak in January killed one person and injured four. The accident forced Samsung Electronics to issue a formal apology.

The government on Tuesday said Samsung Electronics was partly liable for the May 2 leak. Yonhap News, quoting the Ministry of Labor and Employment, reported Tuesday that the company had originally denied responsibility for the latest gas leak accident. Samsung reportedly said that its subcontractor STI Service had not completely removed the hydrofluoric acid, which Samsung said caused the accident.

Samsung Electronics’ PR team neither confirmed nor denied the report but said that the company was not ducking responsibility. A Samsung official said in an interview with The Korea Herald that just because the company did not issue an official apology for the second gas leak did not mean the company was denying liability. The second accident was “basically different in nature from (the first accident),” he said.

The Labor Ministry declined to confirm Samsung’s reported attempt to deny responsibility for the second gas leak, and said the investigation was still ongoing in a telephone interview.



By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)