Presidential office relocation blamed for police failures in Itaewon crowd crush

Bereaved people who lost loved ones embrace one another in front of a photo exhibition near Exit 1 of Itaewon Station in Seoul, Thursday, six days before the third anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy. Yonhap

The government said Thursday that the relocation of former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office to Yongsan District was a key factor in the police shortage during the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, which claimed 159 lives.

The new presidential office, relocated during Yoon's 2022-25 term, is roughly 1.5 kilometers from the disaster site in Itaewon.

Announcing the results of a joint audit into the tragedy, officials concluded that the move had significantly increased demand for police services around the new presidential compound, diverting crowd control forces away from the busy streets of Itaewon on the night of the disaster.

Despite advance warnings of large Halloween crowds, only a limited police presence was dispatched to Itaewon that evening.

The audit — carried out by the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC), the National Police Agency and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety — marked the first formal inquiry into the tragedy under the Lee Jae Myung administration.

Over a three-month period beginning in July, the team examined police headquarters, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Yongsan District Office.

Investigators found that Yongsan Police Station had failed to draw up a crowd control plan for the Halloween weekend in 2022, despite having prepared similar plans in 2020 and 2021. The report said that officers ignored at least 11 emergency calls reporting crowding risks in the hours before the disaster and falsely logged response records.

A person pays tribute at the site of the Itaewon crowd crush in Seoul, Oct. 29, 2024, marking the second anniversary of the tragedy. Korea Times photo by Park Si-mon

Senior commanders, including the Yongsan police chief and the Seoul police commissioner, were faulted for their slow response.

Local officials came under fire as well, with the audit finding that Yongsan District Office failed to activate its disaster response center or issue early warnings.

At a press briefing held at Government Complex Seoul, OPC Vice Minister Kim Young-su said the police had concentrated crowd control forces near the presidential office in response to ongoing demonstrations, leaving Itaewon without sufficient personnel.

“The relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan increased the demand for police deployment in the area, which was a key factor behind the lack of crowd control officers in Itaewon,” he explained.

According to the government, the number of rallies and demonstrations within Yongsan Police Station’s jurisdiction rose roughly 27-fold — from 34 in 2021 to 921 between May and October 2022.

Police resources were diverted to the Samgakji area next to the presidential office where there are frequent political rallies — leaving Itaewon with only a minimal police presence that night.

Kim Young-su, vice minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, announces the results of a joint government audit into the 2022 Itaewon tragedy during a press briefing at Government Complex Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap

The audit confirmed that Yongsan Police Station and the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency failed to communicate effectively, and that the station’s internal handover procedures were insufficient. Some officials retired before any disciplinary measures could be enforced, leaving gaps in accountability.

The interior ministry’s investigation also found that the on-duty personnel at Yongsan District Office were slow to respond. Some officials were reportedly deployed to remove protest flyers near the War Memorial across the street from the presidential office when the crush occurred. Others delayed reporting the situation for over 30 minutes.

The chief of the district’s health center, who was responsible for emergency medical coordination, did not assign clear roles to medical workers, adding to the confusion at the scene, according to the investigation.

A total of 62 public officials — 51 from the police and 11 from Seoul Metropolitan Government and Yongsan District Office — will face disciplinary action.

However, officials explained that retired personnel are exempt from administrative sanctions, although several of them have already been charged and are currently on trial.

The joint audit was launched in July after the president accepted a request from the bereaved families of the victims, who asked that those responsible be held accountable before the statute of limitations for disciplinary action expires. This was the first government-led audit to cover the tragedy's entire chain of events, from prevention and response to post-incident handling.

Families of the victims called the audit a meaningful step but “far too late,” urging the government to expand the investigation to cover gaps in rescue and recovery efforts.

“It’s far too late,” they wrote. “Still, it matters that the government has finally carried out an audit to identify what went wrong and set things right.”

The government said the investigation aimed to provide closure for the bereaved families and to “clarify the institutional failures” that allowed the tragedy to unfold.