hankyoreh

Jo Mi-eun, the mother of Itaewon crowd crush victim Lee Ji-han, weeps on the ground of the alleyway in Itaewon where the disaster occurred as she visits it for the first time since the tragedy with her husband, Lee Jong-cheol. (Kim Bong-gyu/The Hankyoreh)

“I hadn’t gone there to date because I was afraid I might hear those young people’s screams. But I decided that I needed to go at some point, so my husband and I went to the scene of the tragedy for the New Year. I thought of Ji-han, and I just broke down and cried.”

It was around midday on Sunday, at a time when people everywhere were full of hope for the year ahead. Jo Mi-eun, 54, wept for a long time as she paid her first visit yet to the Seoul neighborhood of Itaewon — the site of the deadly crowd crush that took the life of her son, actor Lee Ji-han.

Before, she had been too afraid to visit the scene of the tragedy. But as the year drew to a close, she summoned the courage.

“I just can’t believe so many young people lost their lives in that tiny alley,” she said.

“I plan to do whatever I can to push for an investigation,” she added.

The first day of 2023 marked 65 days since the crowd crush on Oct. 29. Around 50 family members of victims greeted the new year at a citizens’ memorial set up in the area.

More than 50 people who lost loved ones in the Itaewon disaster gather at the citizen-run memorial altar in the neighborhood and hold up the names of those they lost on their phones and say them aloud at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. (courtesy of the Oct. 29 Itaewon Tragedy Citizens’ Action Group)

They assembled at the memorial at around 11:30 pm on New Year’s Eve. As midnight came, they held up cell phones to the sky — each of them bearing the name of one of the victims — and called out the deceased’s name. The family members gathered there said they had stayed until 2 am to comfort each other and remember their loved ones.

The family members who spoke to the Hankyoreh at the memorial on Sunday morning wept as they remembered the people they had lost.

“While he was still alive, Ji-han told us he had found out about a place to go on New Year’s where there weren’t a lot of people and you could really see the sun. He wanted us to go there with him, and now we’ll never get to do that,” said Lee Jong-cheol, the 55-year-old representative of an association of families bereaved by the disaster in Itaewon.

“While other people are rejoicing for New Year’s, it has become one of the saddest days for the people who lost their loved ones,” he continued. “As time passes, the pain of seeing your child die before you only grows.”

The 57-year-old father of crowd crush victim Lee Sang-eun said, “I didn’t think I could see in the New Year without my daughter, who was always there with me every year, so I came here to the memorial, where the other family members and I could all comfort each other.”

“My daughter had said she wanted to get married at Myeong-dong Cathedral on New Year’s. As I thought about her, I left a message by her funeral portrait that said, ‘You’re one of the stars in the sky now. I miss you. May you shine brightly forever,’” he said.

The family members’ wishes for the new year remain the same: a thorough investigation, punishment of those responsible, and a sincere apology from President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Kim Hui-jeong, the 55-year-old mother of victim Choi Min-seok, said, “In the coming year, they’re going to need to get the bottom of how our child met such a tragic fate, and we urgently need punishment for those responsible and measures to make sure nothing like this happens again.”

“Only then do I think I’ll be able to file my son’s death report and enshrine the remains that I’m keeping in his room,” she added.

On Saturday, the group Association of Families of Itaewon Disaster Victims issued a press release stating, “We hope that 2003 will see a thorough, no-holds-barred investigation of the October 29 Itaewon tragedy and punishment of those responsible.”

Jo Mi-eun, the mother of Itaewon crowd crush victim Lee Ji-han, gazes at the citizen-erected memorial altar for those killed in the crowd crush as she visits the area on Jan. 1. (Kim Bong-gyu/The Hankyoreh)

They also expressed their wish for an end to personal attacks on the victims and their family members.

Kim Hui-jeong explained, “At the second official memorial ceremony on Dec. 30, I collapsed. People in front of the memorials were saying outrageous things like ‘Those kids died carousing’ and ‘They were doing drugs,’ and seeing the victims being maligned like that felt like thousands of knives stabbing me in the heart.”

“I wish the people engaging in those kinds of attacks would give some thought to the suffering those kids went through,” she continued.

Also visiting the site were volunteers and members of the public, who made their own wishes for the victims of the Itaewon tragedy.

Yu Sang-hoon, 45, spent over 10 minutes walking around and looking at the victims’ funeral portraits.

He explained, “I had been before to the memorial space that was set up at Exit 1 of the Itaewon subway station after the tragedy, but I’d never seen the victims’ faces. That’s why I came to the citizens’ memorial.”

“I hope that in the coming year, the family members will get their wish and there will be an investigation that clearly determines where responsibility lies,” he added. “I think that’s the only thing that could give them comfort.”

Lee Ui-jeong, a 26-year-old university student volunteering for the first time that day, said, “First, we had a senseless tragedy, and since then we’ve been having senseless controversies with things like the disclosure of the list of victims without the family members’ consent and the secondary attacks directed at the family members.”

“I hope that the new year can be a safe and happy one for everyone.”

By Ko Byung-chan, staff reporter

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