Court rules Itaewon tragedy was 'foreseeable'

A Seoul district court on Monday sentenced the former chief of the Yongsan Police Station to three years in prison without labor in a ruling that held, for the first time, the South Korean public office responsible for the deadly Halloween crowd crush on Oct. 29, 2022 in Itaewon, central Seoul.

Delivering the ruling, the Seoul Western District Court said Lee Im-jae, the then-head of Yongsan Police Station, had failed to establish and implement a safety management plan to prevent the possibility of a dangerous situation arising from the crowds, even though it had been foreseeable. The court, however, found Park Hee-young, Yongsan-gu‘s district head, not guilty in a separate trial the same day. The prosecution had demanded seven-year prison terms for both Lee and Park over allegations that they failed to take proper measures to prevent the crowd crush.

The rulings come a month before the two-year anniversary since the tragedy, recorded as South Korea’s deadliest crowd crush, which left 159 people celebrating Halloween dead in the multicultural neighborhood of Itaewon in Yongsan-gu, central Seoul, on Oct. 29, 2022.

“It was either foreseen or it could have been anticipated that a large crowd of people gathering along this slanted alleyway in Itaewon for Halloween festivities in 2022 could cause a serious danger to bodies from pedestrians pushing and pressuring each other,” said the court during its ruling on Lee, pointing out that the incident was one of the “largest fatal disasters to have happened in Seoul and South Korea.”

Park and other officials of the Yongsan-gu district office were also indicted. However, the same court found them not guilty later Monday, saying related laws and regulations did not require them to come up with safety measures for events without organizers.

“A crowd crush from a large gathering was not categorized as a disaster under relevant laws at the time, therefore, there were no mandatory regulations that specified the district office to establish separate safety management plans for events without a host,” the court said.

So far, the prosecution has claimed that Lee and Park failed to follow through on the extent of their authority and responsibility to prevent the disaster, though dangerous situations arising from large crowds were foreseeable – demanding seven-year prison terms for both defendants.

Both Lee and Park have claimed, throughout their trials, that such a large-scale crowd crush could not have been anticipated beforehand, and that they had done the best they could to prevent and minimize the scale of damage under the given circumstances -- arguing that they bear no liability for the tragedy.

Following today's court rulings, the bereaved family members of the victims held a press conference in front of Seoul Western District Court, denouncing the ruling that acquitted Park while urging prosecution to appeal the ruling for both Lee and Park for stronger punishment.

“For two years, we have marched on the streets for our children and to point out the irresponsibility and incompetency of those responsible,” said Lee Jung-min, the vice chair of the Association of Families of Itaewon Disaster Victims. “However, today’s court rulings are nothing but appalling.”

Twenty-three people, including two corporations, have been indicted so far in connection to the 2022 tragedy.