Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters

The memorial site for the Itaewon tragedy, installed 400 meters from the disaster site in central Seoul, is surrounded with banners put up by the domestic far-right civic group New Freedom Union, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

By Lee Hae-rin

Sunday will mark the 100-day anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy of last Halloween. The bereaved families remain agonized, not only from the lack of proper investigation but also by far-right protesters surrounding their mourning site.

At the western end of Itaewon-ro, about 400 meters from the site of the tragic crowd crush that took at least 159 lives on Oct. 29, 2022, is a temporary memorial space set up by the Association of Families of Itaewon Disaster Victims and civic groups on Dec. 14. A dozen bereaved family members and citizen volunteers stand before the pictures of the victims and offer white flowers and hot tea to mourners, while sad, serene music plays in the background.

However, the site is hardly recognizable from the outside, as it is surrounded by banners irrelevant or even insensitive to the Itaewon tragedy.

"Stop forcing people to grieve," one banner reads, while others list the number of deaths from accidents that happened during the tenure of the 2017-2022 Moon Jae-in administration, adding, "Never seen President Moon apologizing (for these disasters)."

These banners have been put up by the far-right civic group New Freedom Union. Established in 2021 by Kim Sang-jin, a far-right YouTuber and leader of President Yoon Suk Yeol's fan club, the group consists of some 500 members who have held numerous conservative protests against liberal politicians and the former president.

Kim told The Korea Times on Friday that they put up banners and hold what he calls "silent protests" there because the memorial space has turned into "a hideout for political agitators," referring to activists and religious leaders who he believes are coaxing the bereaved families into urging the government to apologize and investigate the disaster.

A banner, which reads in Korean, "We mourn for those who passed in the Marine Corps helicopter disaster under the Moon Jae-in administration," is displayed by the far-right group New Freedom Union in front of the Itaewon memorial site, Jan. 30 Five marines died in the accident on July 17, 2018. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar

Kim said they also have "mourning feelings" for the victims and their bereaved families. A couple of the group's members are stationed at red tents a few meters from the memorial space and livestream the mourning on their YouTube channels.

However, they are not welcomed by the bereaved families, volunteers and mourners.

"I am so shocked (to see the banners), why can't they take them down?" a Seoul-based mourner told The Korea Times on condition of anonymity, Thursday.

"I wonder if they (far-right protesters) would do the same if it had been their own family members and friends who died," another said.

The police said the banners cannot be removed because when the conservative group signed up last December for the use of the space, they also registered the banners as "protest materials."

Kim said the group will keep displaying the banners "as long as the memorial site stands."

In December, the presence of the far-right group was more chaotic. Lee Mi-hyeon, a senior official of the civic group jointly running the memorial site with the bereaved families, said it "was like a nightmare."

Lee said that the far-right protesters screamed, played loud machine sounds from speakers on trucks and displayed hate speech against the bereaved families several times. Their harassment reached a peak last Christmas, when the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ) held a street requiem Mass, she said.

Middle-aged far-right YouTubers allegedly associated with the New Freedom Union derided the bereaved families, even calling them "corpse sellers," and livestreamed them collapsing into tears, Lee said. When Lee Jong-chul, the leader of the bereaved families group, told the press about the secondary victimization by the far-right group, Kim sued Lee for defamation, or in Kim's words, for "pretending to be socially vulnerable."

In response, the bereaved families requested the Seoul Western District Court issue a restraining order against Kim's group, Dec. 29, which will be decided upon next Monday. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) also conducted a field investigation of the situation last month.

Restaurant and shop owners nearby also wish the far-right protests would stop.

Kim Tae-eung, who runs a restaurant across the street, confirmed that he and his neighbors have reported the far-right banners and protests to the police and local government several times, but their complaints have been denied citing freedom of assembly. The authorities have taken the offending banners down few times, but seem to have "given up" now because the far-right protesters keep putting them up again shortly after.

Kim underscored that local merchants, along with the bereaved families, are also victims of the tragedy and urged the authorities to ascertain the truth and hold the responsible accountable, so that the neighborhood can recover.

Meanwhile, the mourning continues at the memorial site.

Bereaved families who lost loved ones in the Itaewon tragedy on Oct. 29, 2022, read letters attached to flowers given by mourners at the memorial space near Noksapyeong Station in central Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

On Thursday, a group of mourners delivered self-made flower bouquets with messages to the bereaved families. Seoul-based office worker Moon Eun-ok, 37, said she and her colleagues wanted to offer flowers with bright colors to the bereaved families, who have been seeing too many white flowers for mourning.

The bereaved families, dressed uniformly in black wearing red scarfs, expressed their gratitude and read the messages on the flowers in silence. Some of them burst into tears.

Dozens of bereaved families, other mourners and volunteers did 159 bows, a Korean Buddhist meditative prayer usually done 108 times, in memory of 159 victims.