SEOUL, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo called Tuesday for providing special care to the families of 18 foreign workers who were killed in a battery plant fire in Hwaseong the previous day. Twenty-two people were killed in the fire at the Aricell plant in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of Seoul, with one still unaccounted for. Of them, 17 were Chinese, five were South Korean, and one was Laotian, according to the authorities. "I express deep condolences to those who lost their lives in the unexpected accident and offer words of comfort to those injured and their families," Han said at the start of a Cabinet meeting, instructing the interior ministry and other relevant ministries to thoroughly determine the cause of the fire and provide immediate assistance to the victims and their families. "In particular, given the large number of foreign workers who lost their lives, I ask the foreign ministry and other agencies to swiftly identify them, establish a cooperation mechanism with the relevant diplomatic missions, and provide close care throughout the entire process of giving updates to treating the injured, arranging funerals and offering compensation for damage," he said. Han additionally called attention to the government's recent efforts to address the country's low birth rate, noting President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of a national demographic crisis last week. He urged ministries to combine their capabilities to overcome the crisis and called on the National Assembly to show bipartisanship in passing a bill for the establishment of a new Ministry of Population Strategy Planning. Source: Yonhap News Agency