Devendra Kumar
South Korea’s parliament has approved legislation requiring a new, independent investigation into the 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that resulted in the deaths of 159 people. The single-chamber National Assembly passed the bill with a unanimous vote of 256-0, with the bill expected to become law soon after it is signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol and promulgated by his government agency. The legislation aims to go into the root causes of the crush, detailing how authorities handled the disaster and assigning blame for it.
The new investigation will be conducted by a nine-member fact-finding committee that will examine the disaster for up to 15 months. Once the committee determines who is responsible and who should face charges, it will report its findings to the government’s investigation agencies. The agencies will then conclude investigations of the suspects within three months. The bill also envisions the creation of a committee to search for the truth and assign blame for the disaster.
The Halloween crush in Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon was one of the biggest peacetime disasters in South Korea’s history. The victims, mostly in their 20s and 30s, had gathered in the district for Halloween celebrations. The tragedy sparked a nationwide outpouring of grief, with many questioning why the government had failed to learn from safety and regulatory issues despite the lessons learned from the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 304 people, mostly teenagers on a school trip.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, police investigators concluded that police and municipal officials had failed to formulate effective crowd control measures, despite anticipating a huge number of people in Itaewon. Investigators also found that police ignored hotline calls from pedestrians warning of swelling crowds before the surge turned deadly. Over 20 police and other officials have been on trial over the disaster, but few top-level officials have been charged or held accountable, prompting bereaved families and opposition leaders to demand an independent probe.
Initially, President Yoon had opposed a new investigation into the disaster, but during a meeting with liberal opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, he reversed his stance, saying he would not oppose the investigation provided that some existing disputes were resolved. The shift in Yoon’s position came as he faces growing public calls to cooperate with Lee’s Democratic Party, which won a major victory in the April 10 parliamentary election, extending its control of parliament for another four years.