Relocation of presidential office caused lack of police presence during 2022 crowd crush tragedy

By Chae Yun-hwan

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Yonhap) -- The relocation of the presidential office by the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration caused a lack of police presence that could have prevented the nation's deadliest crowd crush in 2022, a government audit concluded Thursday.

The tragic crowd crush that killed 159 people happened during Halloween festivities in a narrow alley of the nightlife neighborhood of Itaewon in Seoul's central ward of Yongsan on Oct. 29, 2022, amid a lack of effective crowd control measures.

Following the election of former President Yoon in March 2022, the presidential office was relocated inside the defense ministry compound, near Itaewon, as part of Yoon's campaign pledges.

A rapid buildup of people in the narrow alley has been blamed for the tragedy, but speculation has persisted as to why the government and police authorities failed to deploy sufficient personnel for crowd control at that time.

The interagency audit, which launched in July, found that police preparations for the large-scale festivities had been "clearly" lacking and the presidential office's relocation to Yongsan Ward earlier that year influenced such efforts.

"After the relocation of the presidential office to Yongsan, leadership of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and Yongsan Police Station prioritized stationing personnel for security near the presidential office," the Office for Government Policy Coordination said.

"While there had been many such rumors, this audit confirmed them in numerical terms," a police official involved in the audit said in a briefing. "This audit is meaningful as it sought to uncover the truth behind the tragedy by going through (police) preparations, personnel management and follow-up measures."

A total of 921 rallies took place within the jurisdiction of the Yongsan Police Station from May 1 to Oct. 30 that year, up from 34 during the same period the previous year. The average number of police personnel deployed in the area also increased, the government said.

The audit found the Seoul city government's and the Yongsan Ward office's responses to the disaster were also lacking.

An initial disaster reporting system did not function properly, and follow-up measures, such as operating a disaster safety countermeasures headquarters, were delayed or not taken at all.

The government said it plans to seek action against 62 people for misconduct in response to the disaster or in its follow-up measures.

The audit took place after President Lee Jae Myung met with family members of the victims of the crowd surge on July 16, where they requested the audit before the expiration of the three-year disciplinary period.

yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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