hankyoreh

A person holds up their phone screen displaying a lit candle at a candlelight rally held in downtown Seoul on Nov. 12 in commemoration of the victims of the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon and urging that responsible parties be held accountable. (Baek So-ah/The Hankyoreh)

As cold autumnal rain fell on central Seoul on Saturday evening, tens of thousands of phone screens lit up at 6:34 pm to form a sea of candles.

People gathered at a memorial vigil for the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon on Oct. 29 lit electronic candles and illuminated their phone screens at 6:34 to mark the time that the first call was made warning the police about hazardous crowd conditions on the day of the disaster. Those present chanted “It’s not your fault! No-stone-unturned probe into Itaewon disaster now! Punish those responsible!”

A memorial rally for the Itaewon tragedy, jointly organized by 94 groups including the “Oct. 29 Disaster Remembrance Youth Action,” kicked off in the heart of Seoul at 5:30 that evening. The event’s organizers estimated that around 50,000 participants filled the sidewalks and six lanes that stretch from Sungnyemun Gate to City Hall Station.

Many of the unionists who had attended the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions’ (KCTU) National Labor Conference held at the same place earlier that day also participated in the memorial rally.

One young person who lost two friends in the Itaewon tragedy brought a letter they had written to the rally.

“I keep dreaming of going back in time, before the end of October, and meeting you. But now I can’t go back to that time. The comments that get posted on news articles and the government’s response are so heartbreaking that I cannot go back to living my naïve life,” their letter read.

A citizen who had jumped into action to help with the rescue efforts at the time of the crowd crush also read a letter they had written.

“I never thought that people would just die like that in the middle of the street. I keep thinking of the people I was unable to save, and it fills me with fear and guilt. I’m tormented by guilt that makes me feel that there are people out there who died because of me. I want to tell everyone who went to Itaewon that day, both victims and survivors, that you didn’t do anything wrong,” they wrote.

Some voiced the need to hold accountable and punish precisely those responsible for the deadly tragedy, instead of trying to cut the investigation short by pinning the blame on scapegoats.

Kim Ju-hyeong, head of the fire service branch of the Korean Government Employees Union, stated, “Revisions made to the law put the fire service, along with the police, under the command of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Why should the station chief and the head of the team, who were on the front line, be held responsible? The minister of the interior and safety, not to mention the president, should be held accountable.”

“When they revised the law, they claimed that there was a need for proper command and management,” Kim went on. “But now that an incident has occurred, they are nowhere to be found.”

The fire service union belonging to the Confederation of Korean Government Employees’ Unions (CKGEU) made public its plans to file a complaint against Interior Minister Lee Sang-min with the Korean National Police Agency’s special investigation headquarters looking into the Itaewon disaster on Monday morning.

Ko Jin-yeong, who heads up the firefighters union affiliated with the CKGEU, announced the union’s plans, saying, “[We] will sue Minister Lee, who oversees the general command of police and firefighters, for dereliction of duty and professional negligence, and will hold a press conference at the National Assembly in the afternoon.”

Meanwhile, there appears to be growing disgruntlement among police with what’s being called “bias” on the part of the special investigation headquarters tasked with looking into the tragic events of Oct. 29.

Rather than grilling higher-ups for the slow response made by the police’s command unit, some police view the headquarters as focusing on peripheral issues, such as the deletion of Yongsan Police Station’s intelligence report.

On Friday, Yongsan Police Station’s chief of information was found dead in his residence, and the way the command unit and the special investigation headquarters is trying to pin the blame on front-line police appears to be garnering substantial outrage among police.

Several critical messages have been posted on the police’s internal network, POLNET, and elsewhere.

“They’re only threatening the on-site police because they’re too busy thinking about saving face in front of the administration,” read one. “The higher-ups get to have all the power but none of the responsibility.”

“If police officers need to take the blame, then shouldn’t the minister of the interior and safety as well as the president take the blame too? They’re in charge of the police. We need to know why they’re trying to hold only the police officers accountable while saying that the government’s hands are clean,” another post read.

In response, the special investigation headquarters has stated that it is humbly listening to the various opinions that claim that they are only investigating those in lower positions.

“After establishing the basics, we plan to expand the scope of the investigation as soon as possible.”

By Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter; Kwak Jin-san, staff reporter; Seo Hye-mi, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]