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On February 8, Lee Sang-min, the minister of inside and security, was impeached by South Korea’s Nationwide Meeting over his culpability within the tragedy that unfolded in Itaewon final October.
An enormous celebration in considered one of Seoul’s hottest districts attracted an unlimited variety of party-goers after years of pandemic restrictions made such gatherings unimaginable. On October 29, younger individuals flocked to Itaewon, an emblematic space in Seoul recognized for its nightlife and huge foreigner inhabitants, wearing costumes to have fun Halloween. The festive night time turned lethal when individuals grew to become trapped in one of many neighborhood’s slender alleyways, and over 150 individuals, most of their teenagers and early 20s died.
The character of the Itaewon crowd crush, from the youth of the victims to the federal government response, is harking back to the 2014 sinking of the Sewol Ferry. In one of many worst tragedies in South Korea within the final decade, over 300 individuals, 250 of whom had been highschool college students on a school-sanctioned area journey, died because of mismanagement in any respect ranges, from the ship captain to the South Korean president’s workplace.
The president on the time, Park Geun-hye, and her authorities confronted immense criticism for his or her sluggish and misguided response to the catastrophe, in addition to makes an attempt to downplay authorities accountability within the tragedy and unhelpful investigations that spared prime officers from accountability or punishment. The mismanagement of the Sewol Ferry catastrophe was one of many occasions that led to Park’s impeachment.
With the grief over Sewol nonetheless sturdy, it’s clear that present President Yoon Suk-yeol, the primary conservative president since Park, has made an effort to reply to the Itaewon catastrophe extra shortly than his predecessor. Yoon instantly introduced a pledge to reform the police administration and general nationwide security system. A job drive was additionally launched by the Nationwide Police Company to audit the chain of command and response techniques in place, in response to the heavy criticism the bureau obtained for its inadequate consideration to the emergency because it was going down. Security on public transportation in Seoul and surrounding cities additionally noticed extra consideration from the federal government, with extra sources deployed to fight extreme overcrowding on trains and buses throughout rush hour.
Regardless of the swift response, Yoon and his authorities haven’t publicly apologized for what occurred in Itaewon; an apology would assume an acknowledgment of accountability. 4 months after the tragic crowd crush, many South Koreans are nonetheless ready for the federal government to take direct accountability for the occasions that led to this avoidable loss. Members of the Yoon administration, and Yoon himself, have expressed deep unhappiness and remorse over the lack of life and the tragedy of the state of affairs, however many Koreans deem these gestures inadequate.
Because of this, there have been calls for a lot of prime officers, together with Yoon’s whole cupboard, to resign. At present, nobody in Yoon’s cupboard has stepped right down to take accountability for the tragedy.
Households of the deceased have additionally described the federal government’s responses as chilly and insensitive. When one teenager took his personal life after each his girlfriend and finest buddy had been killed within the crush, the South Korean prime minister known as {the teenager}’s demise heartbreaking, however stated that “it could be higher if he had been a little bit stronger and sought remedy.” The remark introduced an immense backlash, to which the federal government responded by including {the teenager} to the official demise toll of the Itaewon victims.
Whereas a number of members of the Yoon authorities have made related inappropriate feedback within the face of the tragedy, the eye is presently on one official particularly: Lee, the inside minister. The Ministry of Inside and Security, which is chargeable for catastrophe security and is the middle of management for police response, has confronted essentially the most calls to take accountability for the gang crush.
Households of the deceased had been enraged when the probe staff tasked with investigating who’s chargeable for the catastrophe in Itaewon concluded that neither Lee nor the police chief could be held accountable for any fees. The probe staff didn’t press fees in opposition to any prime officers within the Ministry of Inside or the Seoul metropolis authorities and as an alternative decided that native officers and authorities had been to be held accountable.
Amid public anger over the shortage of accountability, the principle opposition, Democratic Occasion (DP), which holds a majority within the Nationwide Meeting, launched a movement to question Lee on account of his “inadequate response” to the disaster. The Nationwide Meeting handed the DP’s impeachment movement on February 8, making Lee the primary sitting minister to be impeached by parliament within the nation’s fashionable historical past.
Yoon expressed anger on the passage of the impeachment movement, calling it a “disgrace” in parliamentary historical past. The ruling get together and authorities have doubled down on the place that though Lee’s response and actions to the Itaewon tragedy sparked criticism, impeachment is just not warranted as a result of he didn’t violate the legislation or structure.
From the start, Lee has expressed that he’s not at fault for the tragedy. Throughout the federal government’s first joint assembly on October 30, someday after the gang crush, Lee stated that the variety of individuals in Itaewon that night time was not sufficient to lift concern, and deploying extra police forces wouldn’t have modified something about what transpired that night time. Many considered this characterization of the night time as an try by Lee to push blame away from himself and the Ministry of Inside and Security for not doing sufficient to stop the catastrophe.
The general public backlash to his feedback was fast, with even members of his personal get together, the ruling Folks Energy Occasion (PPP), criticizing him for making such remarks. Within the face of rising public outrage on account of Lee’s feedback, Yoon instantly launched transcripts of emergency calls made on the night time of the gang crush. The Ministry of Inside and Security was additionally accused of making an attempt to downplay accountability after it ordered native governments to make use of phrases like “incident” and “deceased” at memorial altars as an alternative of utilizing phrases like “catastrophe” and “victims.”
In accordance with polls, 70 % of South Koreans view the Yoon administration’s response to the Itaewon crowd crush as “inappropriate.” The general public’s anger and dissatisfaction over the Yoon administration’s response to the tragedy backed up the DP’s determination to question Lee, who has refused to step down from workplace.
After the Nationwide Meeting handed the impeachment movement, Lee was instantly suspended from his duties. Within the subsequent step of the impeachment course of, the Constitutional Court docket will resolve inside 180 days whether or not to uphold the impeachment and take away Lee from workplace.
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