A year after deadly South Korean crush, families fight for
accountability
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[October 26, 2023]
By Hyunsu Yim and Daewoung Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) -One year after Park Young-soo lost her only son in a
Halloween weekend crowd crush that killed 159 people in the South Korean
capital, she still can’t bring herself to open the door to his room.
She says she may not be able to move on with her life until she sees
some kind of accountability from the government.
Park is one of more than 100 family members who say the authorities have
done little to hold those responsible to account.
Like Park's 29-year-old son, Lee Nam-hoon, most victims were young
people who went to Seoul's nightlife district of Itaewon on Oct. 29 for
its famed Halloween parties.
At around 10 p.m., the crowds in the narrow streets and an alleyway
around the Hamilton Hotel became so packed that people had trouble
breathing.
Despite at least 11 emergency calls over some four hours warning of the
worsening situation, authorities failed to respond before the crowd
surged and left dozens of victims crushed or in cardiac arrest.
Lee died in the crush. His girlfriend survived.
This week, the area near the alley was designated as a space to remember
the victims. Political fault lines formed in the disaster's wake are
still evident.
President Yoon Suk Yeol won't be attending a memorial gathering near the
Seoul city hall this weekend, with an official telling the Yonhap news
agency it was "more of a political rally held by the opposition party".
Gatherings have not been banned in Itaewon over Halloween this year
though authorities and police have been conducting crowd-control drills
featuring an AI-backed network of nearly 1,000 closed-circuit TV
cameras, ahead of the first anniversary of the disaster.
The Itaewon deaths shocked a nation still scarred by the 2014 sinking of
a ferry, the Sewol, that killed 304 people including 250 children on a
school trip.
The Halloween disaster prompted a period of national mourning and a
police investigation that ended this year with an acknowledgement of
negligence and a poor response by the authorities, and the referral of
23 officials for prosecution.
But no senior government official has resigned or been removed over the
disaster.
"The government agencies and the presidential office have been extremely
irresponsible and inactive," Park said.
'IT HURTS MY HEART'
Yoon's office said in a statement the president had expressed on several
occasions that he was "heartbroken and deeply sorry as president", and
that remained unchanged.
"Our top priority is people’s lives and safety; the government will
continue to assess the national safety system and make necessary
improvements," the office said.
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People read letters placed at a group memorial for the victims who
have died from the Halloween crowd crush a year ago, at Seoul City
Hall Plaza in Seoul, South Korea, October 24, 2023. REUTERS/Kim
Soo-hyeon
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min - who has fended off efforts to
impeach him over the incident - issued an apology to victims on
Wednesday and expressed "infinite responsibility" for failing to
protect lives.
Relatives of the victims want a special law that would allow an
independent and comprehensive investigation into the cause of the
crush. A bill, backed by the opposition, has yet to be passed by the
National Assembly without the support of the ruling People Power
Party.
"I just don't want the government to obstruct our effort," Park said
with tears in her eyes, referring to the bid for an independent
investigation.
Some ruling party lawmakers and a municipal official have accused
the families and other critics of trying to profit from the tragedy,
or even of acting on behalf of old rival North Korea.
Kim Young-nam, a mother who lost her daughter in the crush, said she
wanted to restore the honour of victims subjected to baseless
accusations of drug taking, and what critics said amounted to victim
blaming for going out to mark the foreign festival of Halloween.
"It hurts my heart. We need a thorough investigation and
preventative measures so that young people are never sacrificed like
this," Kim said at a memorial altar outside Seoul's city hall.
Twenty-six of the victims were foreigners, from 14 countries
including the U.S., Japan and Iran. A relative of one of them told a
press conference on Thursday that foreign families felt isolated
with no support from the government.
"Nothing is reported to us nor communicated to us," said Nari Kim
from Austria, who lost her younger brother in the crush.
Jong-Woo Paik, chairman of the Korean Society for Traumatic Stress
Studies, said the government had to show that lessons had been
learned to avoid an erosion of trust in society.
"South Korea is an advanced country and the government should create
an atmosphere and opportunities as a nation to overcome social
disasters together," he said.
"In this aspect, the Itaewon tragedy has been deeply regrettable."
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Daewoung Kim and Heejung Jung; Additional
Reporting by Jimin Jung; Editing by Josh Smith and Robert Birsel)
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