Yoon tried spinning Itaewon tragedy, says DP lawmaker

Police officers stand watch as people visit a makeshift memorial for the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Oct. 29 in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Tuesday. [NEWS1]

After the tragedy in Itaewon that killed 158 on Oct. 29, the Yoon Suk-yeol adminstration tried to spin it by not using the term "crowd crush," according to a Democratic Party (DP) lawmaker.

DP Rep. Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's special committee investigating the Itaewon disaster, said Wednesday that officials were advised to use the expression "accident" rather than "crowd crush" after an emergency meeting of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters held on Oct. 30. The meeting was presided over by President Yoon a day after the tragedy.

The president’s office denied the accusation on Thursday, calling it “fake news.”

Shin said her allegations were backed by text exchanges between a senior official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare with others from the National Fire Agency and other disaster response agencies.

The meeting was held to discuss the aftermath of the tragedy, including a national mourning period and victims' compensation, but it appears some attempts at spin also came up.

On the afternoon of Oct. 30, Park Hyang, a senior public health policy official, wrote in a KakaoTalk group chat with other officials in charge of responding to the Itaewon tragedy that they should avoid using the term "crowd crush."

"As a result of today's meeting presided over by the president, we will exclude 'crowd crush' and request [that the incident be called the] Itaewon accident," Park wrote.

"We will change it to Itaewon accident," replied another official in charge of disaster response in Seoul, according to the copy of the text messages revealed by Shin.

Shin said she wants to clarify whether there was any intention by the government to "distort the nature of the Oct. 29 disaster."

Park told KBS over the phone Wednesday evening that the message was just to "relay the results of the meeting" and that the intention was to create consistent terminology for reports on the tragedy, saying he didn't "think much of it."

Police investigations showed in the aftermath of the incident that there were multiple emergency calls made to the 112 hotline on the day of the tragedy specifically referring to the term "crowd crush" to describe the chaotic situation.

Some 130,000 people gathered in Itaewon for pre-Halloween celebrations on Oct. 29 that resulted in a deadly crowd crush of people in an alley beside the Hamilton Hotel in Yongsan District, central Seoul.

Earlier, there was a similar controversy after reports revealed that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety instructed in an official document on Oct. 31 that "victims" of the crowd crush be called "casualties" or the "deceased" and also referred to the disaster as the "Itaewon accident."

The ministry said at the time that it was trying to "unify" the administrative language and had no other intention. The DP accused the government of attempting to play down the disaster and its own responsibility for it.

When asked about instructions not to use the term "crowd crush" in the emergency meeting on Oct. 30, a senior presidential official told reporters Thursday that the Interior Ministry relayed that it would be better to "unify administrative terms" that are neutral in relation to the Itaewon tragedy.

"However, no one believes that the incident will go away because of the terminology," said the official, noting that President Yoon himself has used the term "crowd crush" or "disaster" multiple times.

"I can't understand the allegations that consistent administrative terminology will somehow mislead the people," he added.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]