▲ This file photo taken June 13, 2025, shows a rally participant holding a sign protesting against the results of a civil lawsuit related to the 2017 and 2018 Pohang earthquakes. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, July 23 (Yonhap) -- A court ruled Thursday that it is difficult to recognize the criminal liability of officials involved in Pohang's geothermal power plant project in connection with the southeastern city's fatal earthquake in 2017.

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck Pohang, some 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Nov. 15, 2017, followed by a magnitude 4.6 aftershock on Feb. 11, 2018, killing one person, injuring 80 others and causing significant property damage.

Then the prosecution indicted five officials involved in the geothermal power plant project on negligence charges, saying the project should have been halted and its risks analyzed after a magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck on April 15, 2017.

But the Pohang branch of the Daegu District Court acquitted all five defendants, rejecting the prosecution's claims.

The court said specific professional negligence had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to hold the defendants criminally liable and a substantial causal relationship between the geothermal power project and the earthquake could not be recognized.

Meanwhile, a separate civil lawsuit related to the earthquakes and the geothermal power plant project is still pending.

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