{"id":2199332,"date":"2022-11-03T06:37:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T06:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2199332"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:11:03","slug":"the-south-korean-governments-morphing-response-to-its-failure-in-itaewon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2022\/11\/the-south-korean-governments-morphing-response-to-its-failure-in-itaewon\/","title":{"rendered":"The South Korean government\u2019s morphing response to its failure in Itaewon"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tragedy struck Seoul\u2019s international Itaewon district last Saturday as more than a hundred thousand people went out to celebrate Halloween. As crowds began to push and shove along a narrow, sloped alleyway, people began falling on top of each other. Many couldn\u2019t breathe.<\/span><\/p>\n According to <\/span>transcripts made public by the police<\/span><\/a>, from 6:34 pm to 10:15 pm KST there were 11 emergency calls to the police from various people to report overcrowding and multiple injuries. The earliest phone call came four hours before people began dying.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But for four hours, the police did almost nothing. The next day, interior minister Lee Sang-min seemingly <\/span>defended their inaction<\/span><\/a>: \u201cIt was not an issue that would have been resolved with deploying [more] fire department and police personnel in advance,\u201d he claimed, though the ministry quickly <\/span>backtracked and apologized<\/span><\/a> for his remarks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Less than 150 police were on hand that night, mostly to <\/span>look out for drug use and sex crimes<\/span><\/a> \u2014 not necessarily to control crowds. But just a stone\u2019s throw away, <\/span>4,000 police officers<\/span><\/a> were dispatched to anti-government rallies that were <\/span>far smaller<\/span><\/a> than the crowds in Itaewon Saturday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Initially, government officials said that there were <\/span>no procedures or guidelines<\/span><\/a> to deal with mass gatherings without any central organization. In the case of the Itaewon disaster, partygoers arrived in Itaewon without being prompted to do so by a third party. Hence, the government claimed, there was no way of communicating with the individuals that composed the masses in a meaningful way.<\/span><\/p>\n