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.
'Bitter memories of Itaewon tragedy will make Korea safer place'
A sign in Korean reads "We still have names to remember" at the foot of a narrow and sloping alleyway in central Seoul's Itaewon, Thursday, where 159 people died last year in a tragic crowd disaster. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
By Lee Hae-rin
Let no one suffer what we endured, victims' families say
“We still have names to remember,” reads a memorial plaque written in Korean and engraved on the ground of a narrow alley a few meters away from the exit of Itaewon Station.
That narrow alley, measuring just 3.2 meters in width and 40 meters in length, is where a horrific crowd crush claimed 159 lives ― mostly young people ― on Oct. 29, 2022. It was the deadliest disaster in Korea since the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014.
During the tragedy, a massive crowd flooded into the sloping backstreets of the popular nightlife district during the first unrestricted Halloween festivities since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
Gone now are the police lines, piles of white flowers, letters of condolence and large groups of mourners that overwhelmed the area for months after the tragedy. Only an eerie silence hangs in the air.
“So this is the alley,” a passerby murmured in Korean, Wednesday afternoon, while his companion replied, “I didn’t know it was so tight and narrow here.”
A few people stopped by to offer silent tribute to the fallen victims, while others made praying hand gestures before passing by the alleyway.
Yuki Yoshida, a Japanese national who started attending a Korean language school in September, saw the alley for the first time while touring Itaewon.
She wrote a message of condolence on a sticky note after a short prayer. The note was posted next to hundreds of others on a memorial wall, written in several languages by mourners from all over the world.
Her colleague from Singapore, Amalina Rashid, stood and read some of those messages. The sound of the word “Itaewon” now makes her heart ache, she said, reminding her of many innocent young lives that were lost.
Meanwhile, people sat drinking beer in the open terrace of a nearby pub as loud music and colorful lights flashed in the background.
The tragedy-hit neighborhood, long renowned as Seoul’s cultural melting pot featuring a dynamic nightlife, is slowly coming back to life after being hit hard by the pandemic and the deadly accident.
“People are coming back to Itaewon again and we feel it’s about 80 to 90 percent recovered (compared to before the disaster),” a merchant who set up shop in Itaewon 14 years ago said on condition of anonymity, adding that tourists seem to account for a growing proportion of visitors now.
The latest data from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Shinhan Card show overall spending in Itaewon recovered to 98.2 percent of levels seen before the tragedy. The city’s population data indicates the number of people visiting the district stood at over 26,600 on Saturday, Sept. 23, an 87 percent recovery from a year ago.
A bereaved woman who lost a loved one in last year's Halloween weekend crowd crush, wearing a purple uniform jacket of the bereaved families group, passes by a memorial wall at the site of the disaster in Seoul's Itaewon, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
‘Nothing has changed’
However, despite government-led investigations, the root cause of the disaster still remains unclear, while no senior government officials have been held accountable so far.
Hoping to understand why the accident happened, the families of the victims formed a coalition last year and tried desperately― staging a hunger strike and holding demonstrations ― to push the authorities to ascertain the truth and to keep the memory of the tragedy from being forgotten.
“Nobody apologized. Nobody was fired. Nothing was revealed by the investigative bodies. We still don’t understand why our children couldn’t come back,” said Lee Jeong-min, the head of the bereaved families group who lost his daughter in the stampede.
However, the government does not agree with the claims.
A Korean delegation attended an annual meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Committee in Geneva last week and said the Korean government "ascertained the root causes of the accident" following comprehensive investigations led by the police and prosecutors. It is customary for the committee to address pending issues regarding the safety and rights of people in member nations.
The remarks came after the committee indicated it was a "social catastrophe that seems to be have been fully foreseeable and preventable."
The delegation, headed by the justice ministry's human rights bureau director general, claimed that the government launched a victim-support organization, held regular meetings with the bereaved families to provide support and information about the investigation and plans to set up a memorial in along with local governments to mark the first anniversary. A recurrence prevention plan is also in the works, they said, based on the safety ministry's input.
But the statements enraged the bereaved families, as they “could not disagree more,” in Lee’s words.
Lee Jeong-min, center, head of the bereaved families group, holds a placard that reads, "We will remember the Oct. 29 Itaewon disaster," during a press conference in central Seoul's Itaewon, Thursday, and stares into the alleyway where the deadly crowd crush claimed 159 lives on Oct. 29, 2022. Yonhap
Lawyers of Minbyun, representing families of the victims, as well as safety experts also believe “not even the most basic factual grounds of the disaster were investigated.”
The group announced 30 unresolved tasks for the police, prosecutors and safety authorities, Monday, highlighting their failure to take immediate emergency and crowd control measures and a lack of communication with the bereaved families.
As the next step, the bereaved families are now pushing for special acts to be passed, which will support the fact-finding investigation by an independent body and ensure their participation in the process. The legislation is currently pending at the National Assembly and is likely to be passed during a plenary session in December.
A flower and notes of condolence are posted on a memorial wall at an alleyway in central Seoul's Itaewon, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Preventing similar accidents
Back in the alleyway, people still wonder what Itaewon will look like during Halloween this year.
“I think this year’s celebrations will be a little different. Will people still enjoy Halloween here like they used to this year? Maybe it’s too soon,” Rashid said, as Yoshida emphasized the importance of remembering what happened, but adding that it's also necessary to move on.
The merchants, although still shaken by the tragedy, have no doubt that the neighborhood is safer than ever with enforced crowd control and safety measures.
The bereaved families hope Itaewon will thrive again with more people coming to enjoy the celebrations this year and later. They know neither Itaewon nor Halloween is to blame for the loss of their loved ones and believe a safer world for the next generation can be built only when people remember what happened.
“I hope a lot of people come and join the celebrations as they did before … We should keep our eyes on those in charge of people’s safety and see if they continue to be irresponsible as they were last year,” Lee said.
Choi Joung-joo, the father of the late Choi Yu-jin, echoed Lee’s view, adding they “want people to celebrate life in Itaewon and remember what happened in the memorial space to prevent similar incidents from happening and to create a safer world.”
A plaque on the ground at Itaewon's narrow alleyway reads "October 29 Memorial Alley" in Korean and English, Thursday, as the disaster site that claimed 159 lives on Oct. 29, 2022, was renamed to remember the tragedy. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
On Sunday, exactly a year after the tragedy, the bereaved families will hold a memorial ceremony in central Seoul. They also invited President Yoon Suk Yeol. Their recounting of the disaster, along with that of the survivors, will be published into a book that will be revealed that day.
“Please listen to the stories of the survivors and the victims’ bereaved families again and remember the Itaewon tragedy once more. If those memories come together and grow bigger, such a tragedy will not occur again in this country and there will be no other bereaved families. There should be no more bereaved families,” Lee said.