hankyoreh

Bouquets sit on the ground in Itaewon on Oct. 30, one day after a tragic incident in which over 150 people were crushed to death in a crowd in the neighborhood during Halloween festivities. (Kim Myoung-jin/The Hankyoreh)

It should never have happened. And yet it did.

Few Koreans could have imagined a catastrophe of such a scale when the news first broke on Saturday night. No matter how hard the paramedics tugged, they could not rescue in time the people who were piled up and tangled together.

The hearts of those who tuned into the news on TV and social media all through the night burned with agony, and our society was engulfed in indescribable grief.

The death toll in Itaewon, Seoul, ahead of Halloween was 154 as of 10:30 pm on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022.

The majority were young people in their 20s, primarily young women.

“A tragedy and disaster that should never have occurred happened in the middle of Seoul,” said President Yoon Suk-yeol in a statement released to the public on Sunday.

“The government will designate the period from today until the accident is brought under control as a period of national mourning and will place top priority in administrative affairs in recovery and follow-up measures.”

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo declared Yongsan District, where Itaewon is located, a special disaster zone and said the government will provide support in the form of financial aid for healing and psychological treatment for injured survivors and families of those killed.

The national mourning period will last until Nov. 5, and a joint memorial altar has been set up in Seoul.

All efforts should be taken to ensure that there are no disruptions to the processes of addressing the situation, providing support, and allowing for mourning and honoring of the dead.

This was a “disaster” that should not have happened. But it happened, nonetheless.

In other words, there is no such thing as an inevitable disaster. This is the very reason that preparation is so vital. This weekend’s disaster in Itaewon is no different.

In the early hours of Oct. 30, bystanders keep an eye on victims of the crowd crush as they wait to be transported to the hospital. (Park Jong-shik/The Hankyoreh)

Last year, when social distancing was still in place, the Itaewon area was crowded with people during the Halloween weekend. Even on Friday, a day before the disaster, a pedestrian was swept up and pushed down by an enormous crowd that made normal walking difficult. Fortunately, that incident did not lead to any casualties.

It is questionable whether the local government and police were unaware of such a situation, and one cannot help but think that their disaster preparation was severely lacking.

Yongsan District Office released the results of its emergency countermeasure meeting for Halloween in a press release on Thursday, but the release did not include any considerations for large-scale safety accidents that may occur due to crowds.

This is not the first time such an accident has occurred in Korea. In 2005, 11 people died in a crowd crush in a concert hall in Sangju, North Gyeongsang Province.

Since then, measures to prevent accidents at festivals were strengthened in the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, while the Ministry of the Interior and Safety created a safety management manual for regional festival grounds.

However, neither the ministry nor the local government applied the manual to Halloween this year, saying that the yearly Halloween festivities that take place in Itaewon are “legally not a festival.”

This is simply appalling.

Meanwhile, the police had judged that the festivities would be “hotter than ever,” but only deployed 137 officers to the area on Saturday night. The deployment was a preventive measure for drug and sex offenses, not for accidents from overcrowding.

Some point out that the situation could have been different had the narrow alleyway been made into a one-way street.

The police and the local government are now engaging in a battle to shift responsibility for the accident onto the other.

Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, who has jurisdiction over both sides, seems even more desperate to evade responsibility.

“I understand that it was not a problem that could have been solved by deploying police or firefighters in advance,” said Lee in a joint briefing.

“There were various disturbances and protests in several places in downtown Seoul, so police and security forces were somewhat dispersed.”

Some within the ruling party are reportedly calling for Lee to resign from his post as minister for remarks that appear to shift the blame to rallies and demonstrations when he should be the one spearheading the investigation into the cause of the disaster and managing the situation.

Meanwhile, the Korean people continue to follow the situation with depth and compassion, attempting to solace their grief.

The ruling and opposition parties, which have been butting heads in a series of political disputes recently, said they will focus on devising follow-up measures for the disaster, as well as mourning the victims. They’ll need to set aside party differences and institute fundamental changes to the existing system.

Political leaders and people around the world, including US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, have expressed their deep condolences in relation to the disaster.

At the scene of the disaster, several bystanders and owners of nearby stores set out on the rescue, performing CPR to save the lives of those caught in the crush. Amidst all the misery, we find much hope and comfort in their dedication.

We now wish that this hope and comfort is fully delivered to the victims.

The truest way to honor the dead would be for society to come together to prevent such a tragic situation from happening again.

As revealed in the disaster in Itaewon, social disasters do not occur for just one or two reasons. We have painfully seen through incidents like the Sewol ferry disaster how difficult it is to find and analyze the causes of an accident, hold those who are at fault accountable, and find effective measures to prevent a recurrence.

Our final destination is a society where everyone is safe — a society where a culture of respect for life and human rights is firmly established.

Once again, we express our deepest condolences to the victims.

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