The deadly stampede that killed more than 150 people on Halloween in Seoul last year was due to negligence and a lack of preparation, a South Korean police investigation concluded on Friday.
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The victims of this tragedy in Itaewon, a district known for its nightlife, were mostly young Koreans in costume, many of them women in their 20s.
The specialist team in charge of the investigation, which spent months gathering evidence and interviewing the authorities concerned, concluded that there had been huge failings both at the organizational level and at the level of the response on the ground.
“Organizations that are legally required to prevent and deal with disasters — the police, Seoul District Offices and Seoul Subway Public Enterprise — failed to take safety measures in advance or their plans were inadequate,” said team leader Sohn Jae -han to reporters.
“Even after receiving the emergency calls, no adequate action was taken on the day of the disaster,” he stressed, adding that the lack of cooperation between the relevant authorities and the delays in communication had contributed to the increase in the tally.
Six people were arrested in connection with the investigation, including Lee Im-jae, former Yongsan Police Commissioner in charge of Itaewon District, and Park Hee-young, Yongsan District Chief.
Both are in custody for professional negligence that caused the deaths of others.
In December, a teenager who survived the tragedy was found dead, apparently of a suicide. Authorities decided to count him as a victim of the disaster, bringing the death toll to 159.
However, the investigative team refrained from naming government or police officials, arguing that it was “difficult to infer a breach of duty.”
The Home Secretary was heavily criticized in the wake of the tragedy, with some calling for his resignation after claiming that mobilizing more firefighters and police would not have prevented the tragedy.
He has since apologized on numerous occasions, including to the victims’ families last week, but has not tendered his resignation.
South Korea’s rapid transformation from a poor, war-torn nation into a leading economy with a global cultural reach remains a national pride.
But a series of preventable disasters — like the Itaewon tragedy and the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed 304 people — have shaken Koreans’ trust in the authorities.