Investigating Itaewon disaster: Despite warning signs, utterly deficient readiness, response

Posted on : 2022-12-23 17:31 KST Modified on : 2022-12-23 17:31 KST
There are now only 15 days left of the total 45 days allotted to the parliamentary investigation – we delve into exactly what the investigation should focus on
Park Hee-young, the mayor of Yongsan District, returns to her seat after answering questions during a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee on Nov. 7. Seated in front of her from left to right are Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Safety and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)
Park Hee-young, the mayor of Yongsan District, returns to her seat after answering questions during a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee on Nov. 7. Seated in front of her from left to right are Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Safety and Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun. (Kang Chang-kwang/The Hankyoreh)

It has now been more than 50 days since over 150 young lives were lost in the middle of Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood on Oct. 29. Nevertheless, not a single person among the government’s disaster management-related officials, who failed to prepare for or prevent the disaster they were warned of, has taken responsibility for what happened or resigned.

On Nov. 23, the ruling and opposition parties finally agreed to the establishment of a parliamentary investigation into the Itaewon disaster. But the government probe started off on the wrong foot and was stalemated from the beginning due to delays in negotiations for next year’s budget and a boycott by the People Power Party (PPP). As a result, it took until Dec. 21 for the parliamentary probe to take its first real action, when it launched its first on-site investigation.

There are now only 15 days left of the total 45 days allotted to the parliamentary investigation. Despite the probe’s first deadline being on Jan. 7, the current situation remains dire, with major doubts remaining about the police’s investigation and with no high-level officials having been punished yet.

Where exactly was the state?

“The state was clearly absent.”

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo spoke these words during a session of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held on Nov. 8, a week after the Itaewon disaster. It was the government’s way of officially recognizing the facts belatedly after trying to avoid issuing an apology, expressing regret, or taking any kind of responsibility in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

The government finds the reason for the “absence of the state” in a loophole of the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety. Since the Halloween festivities in Itaewon could be classified as an event “with no organizer,” the government’s argument is that it had no choice but to not get involved given the current laws and systems in place.

This is the reason why remarks that deeply hurt the hearts of victims and bereaved families continued. The National Assembly’s key task now is to clarify through its parliamentary investigation whether or not the government’s argument is valid.

Meanwhile, the inaction of the Yongsan District Office, the primary institution responsible for safety measures on Halloween, has already been clearly revealed.

The Yongsan District Office didn’t even bother to estimate the scale of the event, which should be the first step in accident prevention. Instead, at a meeting held two days before the disaster to discuss emergency safety measures for Halloween, officials only focused on preventing the spread of COVID-19 and on garbage collection issues.

It remains unclear why other issues were discussed but not specific safety measures connected to the actual scheduled Halloween festivities.

Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min speaks on the phone after arriving at the site of the Itaewon disaster in the early hours of Oct. 30. (Park Jong-sik/The Hankyoreh)
Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min speaks on the phone after arriving at the site of the Itaewon disaster in the early hours of Oct. 30. (Park Jong-sik/The Hankyoreh)

Park Hee-young, the mayor of Yongsan District, said in an interview in the immediate wake of the disaster that the Halloween event was one “without an organizer.” Although this can be one of the reasons why his office acted the way it did, it’s still not a sufficient explanation. This is why it is necessary for the parliamentary investigation to reveal what else was being considered by officials at the time, important details that have yet to be disclosed to the public.

Even if she admits to complacency due to “legal shortcomings,” Park’s actions on the day of the disaster still leave question marks. On the day of the disaster, Park visited her hometown of Uiryeong County in South Gyeongsang Province. After returning to Seoul, her route back home actually passed by Quy Nhon Road, which is very close to where the Itaewon crush took place.

After the disaster, it was revealed during a questioning session in the National Assembly that Park had not actually gone to a festival in Uiryeong as she had previously claimed and that she had in fact communicated with Minister of Unification Kwon Young-se, also a lawmaker representing Yongsan District, that day.

The fact that Park didn’t take any active administrative steps as mayor of Yongsan, for example by contacting relevant institutions such as the Yongsan Police Station, is something that needs closer examination through the parliamentary investigation.

The lack of response by Seoul metropolitan government officials also needs closer attention. It is widely known that the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, was in Europe during the Itaewon disaster for an 11-day tour of four different countries.

When several members of the Itaewon disaster parliamentary investigation team asked the Seoul metropolitan government for the status of Halloween day safety measures over the past five years, the response they received was that there “is no current status of Halloween safety measures” and that “there are no documents or plans, such as materials from metropolitan countermeasures meeting at the time of Halloween, drawn up aimed at maintaining order.”

Instead, the only information that was disclosed was the status of COVID-19 medical inspection personnel for Halloween. Just like with the Yongsan District Office, it is necessary to carefully examine why safety issues were not discussed throughout this time.

But this is not to say that the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the institution at the center of disaster and safety policy and response for the nation, was not absent as well. There are signs that raise suspicions of intentional inaction by the ministry.

For example, the remarks made by Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min at a meeting at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters one day after the disaster provide a clue.

“The crowds weren’t big enough to arouse concern. This issue couldn’t have been resolved by deploying more police officers or firefighters in advance,” Lee said that day.

After the controversial comments, Lee explained that his intention through the remarks was to say that “hasty predictions, speculations or inflammatory political claims” should not be made. But questions remain as to whether Lee made these comments without any prior information or an official report.

Another puzzling point is the fact that Lee received the report on the Itaewon disaster after President Yoon Suk-yeol did. The report was supposedly delayed because the emergency text messages from the Ministry of Interior and Safety’s central disaster and safety situation room, which consist of four levels, had to be evaluated for which level they were sent, which determines the receiver.

Lee received his first report at 11:20 pm, one hour and five minutes after the disaster. This was 17 minutes after Yoon received his report at 11:03 pm. This is why the government’s explanation of blaming the delays on the emergency messages system is not completely convincing.

During the parliamentary investigation, it is also necessary to find out whether there were no other means to communicate with Lee other than these emergency messages and why other means of communication failed in reaching and reporting to Lee.

In addition, the reasons why disaster-related organizations such as the police, fire stations, the military, local governments and medical institutions — who are all connected by a single communication network — failed to execute their functions must also be dealt with.

Not only the presidential office’s state affairs situation room, but also the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the National Police Agency’s responses were far from being prompt.

At a briefing on Dec. 3, the presidential office took a step back from the situation when asked if the state affairs situation room was not prepared in advance, to which they answered, “This was under the jurisdiction of the local government, not the state affairs situation room.”

Although the dangers of what was happening were first grasped by lower-level institutions, these concerns were never able to reach the higher-level agencies. For instance, Yongsan Police Station’s information department posted a report regarding concerns about possible accidents during the Halloween festivities on the police’s internal network so that the Seoul metropolitan government would also be able to see it.

Nevertheless, no action was taken, and the report ended up being deleted after the disaster. Park Seong-min, former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s bureau of intelligence on public peace and security, who is suspected of ordering the deletion of the report, was charged by the special investigation headquarters and his case sent to the prosecution for investigation.

It will be a key task for the parliamentary investigation to find out why this early report coming from Itaewon warning of safety concerns was not properly delivered to higher-level agencies and officials.

By Son Ji-min, staff reporter; Kwak Jin-san, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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