Police recommend Yongsan district chief be prosecuted for Itaewon tragedy

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Police recommend Yongsan district chief be prosecuted for Itaewon tragedy

Published: 03 Jan. 2023, 16:12 Updated: 03 Jan. 2023, 17:28

Park Hee-young, center, head of the Yongsan District Office, arrives at the Seoul Western District Court in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Dec. 26 to attend a hearing for a pre-trial detention warrant. [NEWS1]

Police recommended the chief of the Yongsan District Office be prosecuted for professional negligence resulting in the Itaewon crowd crush.

The Korean National Police Agency's special investigation team on Monday recommended the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office indict Park Hee-young and three other district office officials: Choi Won-jun, head of the district office's safety and disaster division, Yoo Seung-jae, deputy chief of the Yongsan District Office, and Moon In-hwan, head of the office's safety, construction and transportation division.

Park and Choi were detained last week on charges of professional negligence resulting in death.

The police said that that a local government is responsible for crowd management of a large event in its jurisdiction, regardless of whether there is a single organizer. Therefore, Park should be held responsible for the tragedy.

Tens of thousands of people gathered for pre-Halloween celebrations on the night of Oct. 29, which led to the fatal crowd crush at an alleyway in Itaewon, Yongsan District, central Seoul that killed 158 people, mostly young people.

In the aftermath, many wondered why no crowd control was planned by police or the local government. Halloween celebrations have been major events in Itaewon for years, drawing big crowds.

The district office said the Halloween events in Itaewon didn't have a single organizer, which is why there no safety protocol was applied. Large crowds were anticipated by the district office, according to logs of meetings earlier in the week.

Police said District Office chief Park changed her mobile phone and deleted information stored on her old phone after the tragedy, which they suspect was an attempt to destroy evidence.

Park is also accused of having lied about her whereabouts on that day.

Choi is accused of ordering poor preliminary measures and neglecting follow-up measures, resulting in an increased loss of life. He is also charged with dereliction of duty.

Police said Choi was out drinking with his friends on the night of the tragedy and failed to go to the scene even after receiving multiple notifications. He is said to have stopped by Itaewon Station later that night but went straight home without taking any action to deal with the aftermath.

Police are reviewing whether to apply for another arrest warrant for Choi Seong-beom, chief of the Yongsan Fire Station, who is accused of failing to take appropriate measures to prevent the disaster and neglect of duty after it, contributing to the high number of casualties.

Prosecutors on Dec. 27 rejected a request for a warrant for the Yongsan fire chief, saying that the causal relationship between Choi's alleged negligence of duties and the deaths was unclear.
The police team is also still deciding how to handle Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency officials including its chief Kim Kwang-ho and Ryu Mi-jin, a situation monitoring officer, for their part in the emergency response that night.

The team will soon be wrapping up its investigation into whether higher-up officials could be held legally responsible by examining whether the Interior Ministry and the Seoul Metropolitan Government should have foreseen the disaster and prevented it.

Separately, a parliamentary probe into the tragedy is underway at the National Assembly and the Democratic Party (DP) and People Power Party (PPP) are discussing whether to extend it.

On Nov. 24, the DP and the PPP opened a parliamentary probe into the Itaewon disaster, but the parties clashed over a DP-led parliamentary motion to dismiss Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and actual on-site investigations began on Dec. 21.

The investigation is set to run through Jan. 7 unless there is an extension.

PPP floor leader Joo Ho-young and DP floor leader Park Hong-keun discussed an extension and other pending issues Tuesday morning but didn't come to an immediate conclusion.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it will recognize the suicide last month of a teenager who was in the Itaewon crowd as a death resulting from the tragedy, raising the technical death toll to 159.

The ministry said it recognized a direct causal relationship between the incident and the suicide after consulting with experts. The teen's family will be eligible for compensation.

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