What has changed since the Itaewon disaster?

One year has passed since the Itaewon disaster took 159 people’s lives. In the public events held on Sunday on the spot in Itaewon and Seoul Square to commemorate the tragedy, many citizens shared the grief with families of the victims. The government and law enforcement authorities had pledged to not repeat such misfortunes in the future. But political circles were not interested in addressing their extreme conflict over the calamity despite the need to console the battered souls of the bereaved families.

President Yoon Suk Yeol absented himself from the memorial in Seoul Square. From the governing People Power Party (PPP), Ihn Yo-han, the newly appointed innovation committee chair, Rep. Yu Eui-dong, policy committee chairman, and Rep. Lee Man-hee, PPP secretary general, took part in the memorial “as individuals” after the conservative party defined the memorial as a “political event” orchestrated by the Democratic Party (DP). In reaction, the DP attacked President Yoon for not participating in the event even though he rushed to the memorial to commemorate the death of President Park Chung Hee earlier.

The DP demanded an apology from the president and urged the government to pass a special act on the Itaewon disaster. The party sent a written request to its city and provincial committees to participate in the two memorials to exploit them as a venue to criticize the government and the PPP. If the two parties sympathize with the victims and their families, they should have shunned such political battles.

The president instead joined a prayer held in a church in Seoul. There, he expressed his condolences to the victims and promised that he would not make their sacrifices meaningless “by building a safer country.”

But we wonder if the government really has made such effort over the past year. After analyzing the government-announced comprehensive measures to revamp the nation’s safety system, we found that it had carried out only 13.4 percent of the 97 detailed tasks it specified nine months ago. The future of the promised 84 countermeasures was also uncertain.

The government’s punishment of officials accountable for the disaster was laid-back, too. No one took political or moral responsibility for the tragedy. The prosecution has not yet decided when to make the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency stand trial even after indicting him on charges of unpremeditated homicide. On Sunday, the president accentuated the responsibility for creating a better world. But actions speak louder than words. The DP also must cooperate with the government to help it speedily build a reliable public safety system rather than blindly attacking the government.