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.
660 civic groups urge President Yoon to sign special bill on Itaewon tragedy into law
Civic group representatives, religious leaders and bereaved family members hold a press conference at the Press Center in Seoul, Friday, to urge President Yoon Suk Yeol to sign a special bill to investigate the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, which saw 159 people lose their lives, into law. Yonhap
By Lee Hae-rin
President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing growing pressure to sign a special bill into law that is calling for a new investigation into the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, as the bill, which was passed at the opposition-controlled National Assembly earlier this month, was transferred to the government on Friday.
Leaders of 658 civic groups from various fields, including religion, labor, human rights, arts and education, together with the bereaved families, held a press conference criticizing the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which recommended that Yoon veto a special bill and urged the president to immediately sign it into law.
“The PPP turned their backs on the bereaved families who demanded the special act in unmeasurable sorrow by proposing to veto it,” the groups said in a joint statement.
The bill was railroaded by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which holds a controlling majority in the Assembly, on Jan. 9 after negotiations with the ruling party broke down. PPP lawmakers boycotted the vote in protest.
The special bill stipulates the formation of an independent investigation committee to look again into the causes of the deadly crowd crush that took the lives of 159 people during Halloween celebrations in 2022 and establish who is responsible.
The ruling party opposed the bill, claiming that the investigation committee will be partisan and unbalanced under the current bill, thus a fair investigation, they claim, cannot take place.
In protest against the ruling party's decision to recommend Yoon veto the bill, some bereaved family members shaved their heads in front of the presidential office to beseech the president not to veto the bill.
“We (the bereaved families) have never denounced or criticized the government over the past year. However, the government always treated us like anti-government forces,” said Lee Jeong-min, the head of the group of bereaved families.
“If the president pushes away the bereaved families one more time and uses his veto power, we will understand that he denies the deaths of our children and (we will) continue our fight until the end.”
If Yoon uses his veto power against the bill, it will mark the ninth time during his tenure.
A vetoed bill is to be brought back to the Assembly within 15 days. A veto override requires a two-thirds vote in the Assembly. Falling short of that majority will lead to its scrapping.