Court halts Seoul city’s 8-month business suspension order on HDC Hyundai

Seoul Administrative Court on Thursday ordered the Seoul city government to halt its plan of an eight-month business suspension on HDC Hyundai Development over its building demolition project that killed nine.

The court order is in effect until the end of this month.

HDC Hyundai Development filed a lawsuit on March 31 to nullify the Seoul city government’s suspension order issued just a day before.

The order was imposed at the request of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the most severe penalty against the real estate developer for poor construction site management.

In June, a five-story building being demolished by HDC in Gwangju, 330 kilometers south of Seoul, fell on a city bus going by the demolition site. Nine bus passengers were killed and eight others were injured.

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)