Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
23-floor apartment collapses in Pyongyang
Families of victims of an accident at an apartment construction site in Pyongyang grieve during a gathering in the capital where senior officials apologized and took responsibility. The word of the collapse in the secretive nation's capital was reported Sunday morning by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, which gave no death toll but said that the accident was "serious" and upset North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un./AP-Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
NK makes unprecedented apology
By Jun Ji-hye
A 23-floor apartment building in Pyongyang collapsed last Tuesday, killing a considerable number of people, according to the Ministry of Unification, Sunday.
A ministry official said that the collapsed building was located in the Pyongchon district of the capital city and was not completed.
“People had already been living in 92 housing units that were finished first,” said the official, indicating that the death toll would reach hundreds.
The explanation came soon after the North’s state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported a “serious” accident that occurred last week at a construction site in the capital.
It said the accident triggered a major rescue operation, which ended Saturday, but did not reveal the number of deaths and injuries.
The KCNA said, “The accident occurred as the construction of an apartment building was not done properly and officials supervised and controlled it in an irresponsible manner.”
It is unprecedented that the highly controlled state media of the communist nation reports news that might be considered negative for its image.
The North Korean authorities also made a rare apology to the bereaved families and district residents.
According to the KCNA, Choi Bu-il, minister of people’s security, told citizens, “It is an unforgivable sin, which cannot be compensated by any means.”
For its part, the Rodong Sinmun, a mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party, carried a photo in which one executive bows in front of a number of local people to make an apology.
The attitude differs very markedly from previous cases.
When the Ryongchon station in North Pyongan Province was destroyed in an explosion in April 2004, claiming 150 lives and injuring 1,300 people, its media did not report an apology from authorities.
Experts say such prompt apology reflects the North’s concern that the accident could agitate the people, considering that the key group of people supporting the North Korean regime resides in the capital city.
The KCNA stressed the Kim Jong-un regime has emphasized a people-oriented policy, saying, “The ruling Workers’ Party has always given priority to protecting the lives and property of the people.”
Such intention is also evidenced by a report that the Stalinist state’s young leader Kim Jong-un “sat up all night, feeling painful after being told about the accident.”
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul, said, “The North’s way of reporting the accident is seen as an apparent attempt to display at home and abroad that Kim Jong-un is a true leader who carefully perceives public sentiment.”
Some raised another interpretation that the isolated state tried to give the impression that it considers people’s lives as important, bearing Seoul’s ferry Sewol disaster in mind.
The tragic sinking of the vessel claimed hundreds of lives, mostly high school students who were on a school trip on April 16.
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