About 1,000 people held a march on Saturday to remember the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush, including 150 family members of those who died in the tragedy some 100 days ago. But clashes with squads of police officers marred the somber event as authorities attempted to stop participants from erecting an unapproved altar in front of City Hall.

The mourners initially planned to hold the event at nearby Gwanghwamun Square and to set up the memorial altar there. But the Seoul municipal government rejected the requests, and the police agency dispatched about 3,000 officers to ensure mourners couldn’t access the area.

The Seoul metropolitan office initially gave the families until Monday at 1 p.m. (KST) to remove the altar, but the memorial was still standing as of Monday evening. 

“Some mothers [of the victims] passed out during the standoff and were sent to the hospital in ambulances,” Cho Mi-eun, the mother of crowd crush victim Lee Ji-han, told Korea Pro on Monday.

“I saw [Seoul mayor] Oh Se-hoon shedding tears talking about the crowd crush. Seeing his tears, we had a small sense of hope that he might be different from other officials,” she said. “But now, it all looks like hypocrisy to us.”

So far, the Yoon administration has avoided the kind of intense public blowback that followed the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014. But the heavy-handed approach to the families of the crowd crush victims by the conservative Seoul mayor, a major figure in Yoon Suk-yeol’s People Power Party (PPP), risks doing exactly what the government likely wishes to avoid — politicizing the tragedy.

DEJA VU

Gwanghwamun Square, which is nestled between government buildings, City Hall and the Blue House — formerly South Korea’s seat of power — regularly hosts rallies and marches by groups from across the political spectrum. Most famously, it was the location where millions of South Koreans peacefully gathered for months to demand then-President Park Geun-hye’s impeachment in 2016.

The government’s refusal to allow the bereaved family members to erect a memorial altar for their dead relatives in Gwanghwamun was likely because of its fear that a memorial at that location could serve as a focal point to attract broader anti-government protests. 

When protesters demanded Park’s impeachment in 2016, they demanded investigations into corruption allegations and a thorough investigation into the botched rescue attempts that led to the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy.

However, stonewalling the families from erecting their memorial altar in Gwanghwamun Square — a public space — provides ammunition for the opposition party to use against the government.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP), which blames the Yoon administration for failing to protect the 159 people who died due to the crowd crush event, and two other minor opposition parties submitted a motion in the National Assembly on Monday to impeach interior minister Lee Sang-min. The DP holds Lee primarily responsible for the tragedy. 

Further, DP leader Lee Jae-myung said at the event, “I am outraged by the irresponsible and heartless actions of this government that have forced ordinary bereaved family members to turn into fighters.” 

“Genuine healing can only begin after there has been an ascertainment of the truth and those who are responsible have been punished,” he added.

On Sunday, parliamentary Speaker Kim Jin-pyo and the leaders of both parties, Reps. Chung Jin-suk and Lee Jae-myung, commemorated the victims of the Itaewon crowd disaster in a rare bipartisan ceremony held at the National Assembly.

But President Yoon’s refusal to sack interior minister Lee Sang-min and the Seoul government’s attempt to stop the family members from setting up their memorial altar in Gwanghwamun have already cemented people’s perceptions: Progressives seek answers, and conservatives want to move on as quickly as possible.

KOREA PRO (Feb. 6, 2023)

AN UNTHINKABLE CHOICE

For its part, the government offered the bereaved family members an alternative location in Itaewon to set up a memorial altar. The government argues that it is spacious and close to where the victims died. However, the family members have refused the government’s offer because it is an underground facility.

“Seoul deputy mayor called me this morning and asked why we are saying no to the fourth basement level space at Noksapyeong Station [in Itaewon], why we had to choose Gwanghwamun for the altar,” said Cho, who along with her husband heads an association of family members of the Itaewon crowd crush victims. 

“I’ve visited that space. It felt like walking down that steep Itaewon hill again” where the victims died, she said. “We could not rescue them from that place, and bringing their pictures back into that Noksapyeong underground — we couldn’t do it. The mothers [of the victims] felt it would be like taking them down into a grave that they can never leave again. That’s why we refused.”

The government’s response could turn voters away from the Yoon administration and conservatives in general. After the Itaewon crowd crush incident, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon made a tearful public apology stating that he felt “infinite responsibility.”

“The Seoul city government will do its best to mobilize all its administrative power until all funeral procedures are completed and the bereaved families, the injured and all citizens who feel sorrow from this accident can return to their daily lives,” he said in his address.

But the actions of the Yoon administration and Seoul government now risk undermining Oh’s promise. And while the effect this will have on voters’ perception of the conservative party remains unclear, the precedent of Sewol shows that South Koreans can reserve harsh judgment for those they perceive as evading responsibility.

Jeongmin Kim contributed reporting to this article. Edited by Bryan Betts.