Police chief admits drinking on night of Itaewon tragedy

National police chief Yoon Hee-keun responds to questions from the National Assembly at a hearing on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

National police chief Yoon Hee-keun admitted he was camping and drinking outside Seoul on the night of the deadly Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.

“I already told you I did drink,” Yoon said in response to a question from a lawmaker at a hearing held by a special parliamentary investigation of the Itaewon tragedy.

Yoon was being questioned about reports that after a day of hiking with friends in Jecheon, North Chungcheong, on Oct. 29, he had a few drinks with them and drunkenly gone to sleep at a local campsite. Some asked whether Yoon failed to respond immediately because of the alcohol.

The crowd crush took place at around 10:20 p.m. on Oct. 29, according to police. A total of 158 people were killed.

Yoon’s subordinates tried to reach him with situation reports at 11:32 p.m. that night, and again at 11:52 p.m. But Yoon picked up the phone for the first time at 00:14 a.m. on Oct. 30.

“It was a Saturday night, can’t a man have a drink then?” he told the Assembly committee on Wednesday. "How much of my personal life must I justify?"

The parliamentary probe, launched in November, has been questioning officials from the Seoul city government, Yongsan District Office and chiefs of police departments.

Like Yoon, other senior-ranking police officers summoned for questioning on Wednesday defended their actions.

“I requested [the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency] for riot police [to assist with crowd control],” Lee Im-jae ex-chief of Yongsan Police, told the Assembly committee on Wednesday.

Kim Kwang-ho, chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, dismissed Lee’s claim.

“We did not receive any request [for crowd control] other than one traffic police unit,” Kim said in the hearing.

The parliamentary probe is separate from an ongoing police investigations into the incident. While the parliament does not have the power to indict, it can demand that ministries or government bodies take corrective measures, such as awarding compensation or taking disciplinary action.

Police have questioned the chiefs of police departments and officials from the Yongsan District Office and the Seoul city government. National police chief Yoon hasn’t been included in the police investigation.

As of Wednesday, the police referred their cases on Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan District Office, and ex-chief of Yongsan Police Lee, to the prosecution with a request to indict them for professional negligence leading to involuntary manslaughter.

Police in Korea do not have the authority to indict suspects unless the case is minor and the associated fines are less than 200,000 won ($157).

The police said they expect to conclude their investigation by the Lunar New Year holiday.

They were said to have dropped cases on officials outside the Yongsan Police and the Yongsan District Office, which means people in the Interior Ministry and the Seoul city government, including the minister and mayor, are off the hook.

The law on management of disasters and safety in Korea places the local district office in charge of crowds on special occasions.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]