In Itaewon, where crowds gathered on the day of the disaster, several public officials from the Yongsan-gu Office, which was in charge of safety management, were also present.
Looking at the investigation records of the Itaewon disaster that we analyzed, it was revealed that they did not report or take any action even after seeing먹튀검증 the crowds.
They didn’t even know how to send a disaster text message, so it was only after the disaster occurred that workers learned how to send it through a video call, and it wasn’t until much later that they were able to send a text message.
Reporter Kim Ji-in covered the story.
◀ Report ▶
At 7pm on October 29th last year, the streets of Itaewon were already overflowing with people.
About 3 hours before the disaster, the streets behind the Hamilton Hotel were filled with people, making it difficult to move around.
At that time, three employees of the Environment Department of Yongsan-gu Office went on noise enforcement patrol here.
However, they withdrew without any crackdown.
He stated, “There were so many people that I couldn’t enter the alley, so I went back,” and the Special Investigation Headquarters pointed out, “They didn’t even report it even though they were aware of the crowd.”
The same goes for the Construction Management Department employees who cracked down on illegal street vendors at the site from 7 to 9 p.m.
They recognized that “their job is to crack down on street vendors to protect the surrounding commercial area rather than pedestrian safety.”
The 13 employees of the Parking Management Department also cracked down on illegal parking as usual.
In the investigation report, the police said that contrary to Yongsan-gu Office’s claim that “58 people from 11 departments were deployed to implement safety measures,” “none of the workers received specific instructions to prepare for Halloween, and most of them did not even keep their working locations or hours.” “I didn’t,” he wrote.
Immediately after the disaster, Seoul City Hall urgently called Yongsan-gu Office five times.
Yongsan-gu Office did not answer the phone.
In the case of nights or holidays, the on-call room must function as a disaster and safety situation room, but the on-duty worker did not even know his duties.
During the prosecution’s investigation, Deputy District Commissioner Yoo Seung-jae complained, “It appears that the employees are not on duty properly. I have nothing to say. It’s frustrating.”
[Hyun-cheol Moon/Vice President of the Korea Disaster Management Society (Professor, Honam University)]
“If only the traffic restrictions stipulated by law had been imposed, no one would have died… It’s the same as the military where platoons and companies cannot function.”
Yongsan-gu Office’s disaster text message was sent out later than Seoul City’s, at 0:11 past midnight.
The worker at the time stated, “I didn’t know how to send disaster texts, so I had to make a video call to the person in charge to learn how to send them, so I was delayed.”
The police asked the disaster management team leader, “Isn’t disaster management your job?”
The disaster management team leader responded, “We only manage facilities, but it’s easy to be misunderstood because of the team name. We need to change the team name.”
The head of the Disaster and Safety Division simply answered, “There is no manual for stampedes. We follow the manual.”