Some firefighters end their lives due to traumatic injuries…3 years after the Seoul chessboard accident that killed 159 people, “super-lack of security” is a serious crime by the government.

159 people died, including two Japanese.

October 29 marked three years since the unprecedented catastrophe. It was a chessboard accident that occurred in Itaewon, a downtown area of Seoul, South Korea. On the day of the accident, a crowd of about 130,000 people visited the area for Halloween. The narrow street, 3.2 m wide and 40 m long, near the nearest subway station was jammed.

The crowds were so dense that it was impossible to move (more than 10 people per square meter), and people came one after another. People collapsed as if the waves were crashing down, and then people were covered on top of them. …… Many people were brutally crushed to death.

Three years later, the effects of the disaster are still being felt. Many of the firefighters who rescued the people suffered traumatic injuries, wondering why they could not save them, and two people have taken their own lives since the beginning of this year.

FRIDAY Digital interviewed local voices and experts in the immediate aftermath of the accident, and we would like to reflect on the seriousness of the government’s decision to assign only 137 police officers in charge of security despite the presence of 130,000 people in the crowd.

I don’t want a repeat of that.”

Don’t push!　Go back!”

People will be crushed!”

As people fell one by one, the joyous Halloween atmosphere that had enveloped the downtown area was transformed. The atmosphere was filled with the fear of death.

Upon receiving the news of the incident, then President Yun Suk-yeol moved immediately. He instructed all relevant authorities to set up a rapid emergency medical treatment system. On October 30, the following day, he entered the Crisis Management Center of the Presidential Office, and indicated that he would give top priority to the situation.

However, it seems that behind this move was the calculation that he did not want to follow in the footsteps of past administrations. Mr. Shinichi Hen, editor-in-chief of “Korea Report,” explains.

The Sewol disaster, in which more than 300 people were killed in April 2002, must have been on his mind. The then President Park Geun-hye was out of communication for about seven hours after the accident, and the scene was in chaos. The delay in the initial response caused the damage, and the incident was heavily criticized. The “Sewol” incident contributed to the resignation of the Park administration. President Yun wanted to avoid a repeat.

Two reasons why security was super-light.

But the government was also to blame for the Itaewon accident. Despite the 130,000 people who visited the site that day, only 137 police officers were deployed. Mr. Hen continues, “Moreover, the purpose of security was not to control traffic, but to prevent it.

The purpose of the security was not to control traffic, but to detect drunken fights and voyeurism. There were two reasons why security was so inadequate: first, there had been a number of anti-government demonstrations in the neighborhood prior to the accident, and second, there were too many people assigned to the demonstrations. It seems that personnel were allocated to deal with the demonstrations.

The second is the presidential office, which was relocated when President Yun took office in May ’22. The new presidential office is located near the accident site. At the time, inter-Korean relations with North Korea were strained. Both sides planned a “beheading operation,” which implied the assassination of the other country’s top leader, so security tended to be biased toward the presidential office. On top of that, I hear that the police officers were exhausted from working night shifts day after day.”

After the accident, the Yun administration increased the number of security guards from 137 to approximately 2,000, more than ten times the number of the previous year, to handle the aftermath. However, this response seems to have provoked a further backlash from the public.

If they could mobilize so many people, why didn’t they have 2,000 guards in place from the beginning? The people are right to be angry because they put their own safety ahead of the lives of the people by concentrating security at the presidential palace,” said Hen.

The deadly accident that claimed the lives of 159 people, including Japanese, did not happen by accident. It was also a “man-made disaster” caused by the negligence of the government.