9 more to be questioned in Itaewon tragedy investigation

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9 more to be questioned in Itaewon tragedy investigation

Published: 23 Nov. 2022, 14:41

A police officer walks into the office of the special investigation unit of the National Police Agency on Nov. 17, 2022. [YONHAP]

Nine more people — police officers and public officials — will be called in for questioning in relation to the Itaewon tragedy.

The list includes Park Sung-min, a police superintendent general, and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at Yongsan Police Precinct. Four intelligence officers will also been asked to appear.

Park is under suspicion of ordering an internal intelligence report to be deleted. The report warned about possible dangers during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon.

Song, who was previously in charge of the police emergency hotline in Yongsan District – which covers the Itaewon area – is being investigated for a possible failure to report the situation to Lee Im-jae, former chief of the Yongsan Police Precinct. Lee was summoned for questioning earlier this week.

The National Police Agency has set up a special investigation unit dedicated to investigating the Itaewon crowd crush and has completed the first round of questioning of key figures related to the incident.

The nine are in addition to seven others already under investigation.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]