Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Korea criticized for poor crowd control over Halloween tragedy
A police officer stands to control public access to the alley, Monday, where the deadly crowd crush took place during Itaewon's Halloween celebrations on Saturday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Lee Hae-rin
Foreign ministry says Iranian official's criticism is his own, not Iran's position
By Lee Hae-rin
Foreign nationals and media have been accusing the Korean government of failing to control the crowd in Itaewon on Saturday, pointing to that as one of the main reasons the Halloween tragedy happened there, killing at least 156 people and injuring 152.
The Iranian government publicly criticized the Korean government for the lack of crowd control. Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said on Monday during a press briefing that the Korean government should have properly managed the situation and implemented safety measures to control the Halloween crowds.
The spokesman expressed condolences to Korea and said that he hopes the country manages the situation properly and takes necessary measures to respond to injuries and other issues with a systematic plan.
As of Tuesday, 26 foreign nationals from 14 different countries, including Iran, China, Russia, Japan, the U.S., Norway, France, Austria and Australia are confirmed dead and have been identified.
Iran tops the affected countries with five of its nationals having been killed in the tragedy, including four students pursuing their master's degrees and one exchange student who arrived in Korea less than two months ago. Two of the victims have been identified as a married couple.
Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted the Iranian spokesman's criticism, saying that what he said represents his own stance, rather than the official stance of the Iranian government.
The ministry said Tuesday that it checked with the Iranian authorities about the spokesman's comments and confirmed that it was not an official stance. The Korean government expressed regret that such comments should not have been made regardless and requested the Iranian authorities to avoid a recurrence of such an incident.
In response, Iran's government expressed its condolences once again for the tragedy and reconfirmed its will to cooperate with Korea in taking follow-up measures, the ministry added.
Julia Cho, 24, an Australian tattoo artist who was at the site Saturday night and lost her friend and compatriot, Grace Rached, 23, due to the lethal crowd crush, criticized the Korean authorities.
In an interview with the U.K. newspaper, The Daily Mail, published on Monday, Cho said, “The local authorities were not on standby and left innocent people helpless, despite knowing that there was an excessive amount of people in the streets with nowhere to go … People were suffocating, toppling over one another and crushed.”
Cho added, “The government had insufficient systems in place to help worried families trying to get status updates about the safety of their loved ones … The government hotline for missing people is down now and victims' families do not even know where the bodies of their loved ones are at the moment.”
In her post on social media, Cho also wrote, “The leaders and authorities hold sole responsibility and have failed their people. I'm posting this here to raise awareness and to express my grief for those whose livelihoods are stolen as a result of neglect and poor management.”
Many foreign nationals interviewed by The Korea Times at the site of the tragedy on Sunday and Monday also testified about the insufficient police presence, echoing that it aggravated the situation.
International media are also critical of the Korean government's failure to control the crowd.
The Korean authorities “would have anticipated the high numbers … before Saturday night … There is a responsibility on the part of the authorities to be monitoring crowd volume in real time, so they can sense the need to get people out,” Juliette Kayyem, CNN's disaster management expert and national security analyst at the channel said on Monday.
Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, bows to apologize over the ministry's failure to control the crowd in Itaewon for Halloween on Saturday at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
In response to the criticism, Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min apologized Tuesday over the government's failure to control the crowd.
“I offer my humble apology to people for the accident, as a minister of competent authorities,” the minister said during the National Policy Committee's meeting at the National Assembly. He said, “The nation has unlimited responsibility for the safety of the people,” and promised post-accident management and investigation to determine the cause, while doing his utmost to prevent another large-scale disaster in the future.
The minister drew intense criticism on Sunday by saying that the crowd crush “was not preventable by providing sufficient police and firefighting forces in advance.”