SEOUL: South Korea’s parliament on Thursday (May 2) passed a Bill to set up a new probe into a deadly 2022 Halloween crowd crush which left more than 150 mostly young people dead.
Tens of thousands of mainly young people had gathered on Oct 29, 2022, to enjoy the first post-pandemic holiday celebrations in Seoul’s popular Itaewon nightlife district.
But the night turned deadly when revellers poured into a narrow, sloping alleyway between bars and clubs, with a lack of effective crowd control measures leading to a crowd crush in which 158 people died and hundreds were injured.
The parliament, which is controlled by the opposition who secured a landslide victory in April legislative elections, passed the Bill in a bipartisan manner with 256 votes in favour, three abstentions and no opposing votes.
President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoed a similar Bill that had been passed without the support of his party in January.
This time, the parties reached a compromise by amending the earlier Bill to remove direct investigative power from the nine-member panel looking at the disaster, a task which could last up to 15 months.
The Bill to establish a fresh probe follows the convictions of two former senior police officers in February for destroying evidence linked to the crush – the first police officials to be sentenced over the disaster.
Kim Kwang-ho, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, is on trial facing professional negligence charges.
The ex-police chief denies wrongdoing, telling the court on Monday: “instead of seeking a scapegoat, real preventive measures should be carried out”, broadcaster JTBC reported.
District-level officials have been prosecuted over the disaster, but no high-ranking members of the government have resigned or faced prosecution, despite criticism from victims’ families over a lack of accountability.
