One year after South Korean Halloween tragedy, wounds remain raw, accusations fly

SEOUL, South Korea — Itaewon, the Seoul district where 159 revelers were crushed to death last Halloween, is neither silent nor haunted as the tragedy’s anniversary looms.

The district’s main strip, a pedestrian alley lined with clubs and bars with names such as Craft Hans, Jilhal Bros and Dead Man’s Fingers, was pulsating Friday night. Drinkers lined bars, stylishly dressed youths strolled, a man danced under a replica great white shark hanging from a bar ceiling.

Absent were decorations or references to the Halloween weekend, raising the prospect that the customary revels would be replaced by candlelight vigils this year.

“No predictions,” one bar owner said. “We are not too worried. We are a sports bar and will be packed for the Rugby World Cup.”

Others declined to speak.

“We don’t want to talk to media; we want to serve beer,” a bar staffer said. “The news is all bad news.”

Police, widely criticized for failing to appear in time last year, are now ubiquitous. Itaewon’s main road has one lane closed and is lined with police and emergency vehicles. Every alleyway entrance is manned by police and yellow-jacketed district office staff.

The side alley where the carnage occurred is still open to foot traffic, occupied by a restaurant, a club and a convenience store. Still, one wall is lined with somber Post-Its: “God bless your souls,” reads one.

Lee Ju-hyun, whose legs were injured in the crush and who still experiences trauma, will return.

“I will go to Itaewon, to the festival, this year,” Ms. Lee told foreign reporters Wednesday. “Itaewon and the Halloween festival are not guilty. Those responsible for crowd control are guilty.”

That responsibility, many say, lies with the government of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol.

A monthslong police inquiry concluded that the tragedy was “a manmade disaster.” Sixteen public officials and two companies have been prosecuted, according to the nongovernmental organization Lawyers for a Democratic Society, and Seoul’s police chief remains under investigation by prosecutors. An impeachment motion for the minister of public information and security was overturned in court.

Survivors, relatives and the lawyers group have unleashed a barrage of criticism over the aftermath of the tragedy. Accusing the government of mismanagement, lack of transparency and non-support and liability, they are demanding an independent investigation.

On Sunday, opposition figures and thousands of protesters criticized Mr. Yoon for failing to appear at a march and memorial service in Seoul. They also demanded that Safety Minister Lee Sang-min resign, The Associated Press reported.

Lee Jeong-min, speaking for the families who lost loved ones, pressed the government to support a special law to allow an independent probe of the tragedy.

“We did our utmost to raise our children, but we couldn’t even touch them when they vanished all of sudden,” Mr. Lee told the crowd at one point. “Where can we talk about our resentment toward this reality?”

Victims’ families said Mr. Yoon was invited to the gathering Sunday, but the president’s office said he went instead to another memorial service at a Seoul church.

The hangover from the disaster presents a risk for a government that, in April, faces its most prominent political test since taking power in 2022.

Night of horrors

Itaewon is Seoul’s most foreign-centric district — a character imparted by the decadeslong presence of U.S. troops in the adjacent Yongsan military base. Its freewheeling ambiance draws in other minority communities, such as expatriates, Muslims and LGBTQ people.

GIs relocated to Yellow Sea coastal bases in the 2010s, and Itaewon gentrified. The district boasts a multistory Gucci store and upscale boutiques but has never lost its abroad-at-home vibe.

Itaewon was renowned for staging South Korea’s best Halloween weekend. Last year, festivities were at the end of two years of social distancing restrictions applied during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Oct. 29, 2002, an estimated 100,000 costumed and exuberant visitors packed the bar-lined alley, which runs parallel to Itaewon’s main street, the site of bus, subway and taxi stops. The disaster unfurled in a narrower, sloping side passageway connecting the street and the alley.

As crowds at the top massed, an “escalator effect” came into play. A compression of people funneled downhill. Revelers tumbled on top of one another in a tangle of bodies reportedly 15 feet deep. Pressure injuries and asphyxiation took a terrible toll.

Amid the nightmare, party music continued to blare. Neon lit the scene.

After casualty figures became clear, South Korea reeled. Angry questions were raised. Why was the packed district not policed more thoroughly? Why had crowd control measures not been prepared? And why had the emergency service response been so slow?

Conversely, some netizens accused partygoers of responsibility and raised allegations of illicit drug use. Others said Halloween, a festival imported from the United States, was to blame.

Political shocks

Shock waves jolted the body politic. Many drew parallels to the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 299 people, mainly youths. Blame for that disaster hammered the first nail into the coffin of the administration of a previous conservative president, Park Geun-hye.

Memories were fresh two years later when Ms. Park was engulfed in a corruption/influence-peddling scandal. She was impeached, ejected from office and imprisoned for almost five years.

A well-connected visitor to Seoul from Washington told The Washington Times this week of concerns among U.S. policymakers that the fallout of the disaster last year could have a similar impact on the fortunes of Mr. Yoon, who has cultivated stronger ties with the U.S.

Leaders of opposition parties in the national legislature say they will continue to press for the special enabling law for an independent investigation.

Korean culture strongly champions victims, visible in politically charged memorials dotting downtown Seoul. One remembering Itaewon’s dead stands in front of City Hall. Across the street, another memorializes the Sewol sinking. Down the street, another commemorates those allegedly killed by COVID-19 vaccines. Behind the Japanese Embassy stands a statue of a “comfort woman.”

Mr. Yoon faces parliamentary elections in April, and a significant loss for his party could leave him a political lame duck. Moreover, it’s feared that the opposition Democratic Party could initiate impeachment proceedings if Mr. Yoon is weakened.

Error or negligence?

After the disaster, Mr. Yoon visited memorials while Prime Minister Han Duck-soo briefed the media. The crux of the failure, Mr. Han said, was a gap in national crowd management systems.

Festival organizers must report to authorities before their event so appropriate police assets can be deployed. Itaewon’s Halloween celebrations, however, grew organically out of the district’s bars and clubs without a single official organizer.

Hence, no special police presence was requested, Mr. Han said.

Some argue that the police were not in Itaewon in sufficient force because many were busy overseeing an anti-Yoon demonstration.

Yun Bok-nam of Lawyers for a Democratic Society says two companies of riot police — approximately 200 strong — monitored Itaewon in 2021. It is unclear, however, whether their role was crowd management or enforcing social distancing guidelines.

The only special police detachment last year was carrying out anti-drug enforcement, fueling the anger of some of those who lost loved ones in the crush.

“Ruling party MPs have framed the victims as disorderly people, possibly involved with drugs,” said Yu Hyoung-woo, who lost a child in the tragedy. “The truth of that day is still unraveling.”

Calls to police lines about a disaster underway led to no action. The timing of the deaths remains unclear, as does the true scope of the victims.

“Victims include not just bereaved families, but survivors, those who took part in first aid, witnesses and local shopkeepers — everyone who suffered psychologically and physically,” Ms. Lee said. “All these people are being neglected.”

That sentiment is common.

“Government officials … never met the bereaved families of the victims or provided an official briefing on the tragedy,” said Mr. Yun. “Even when we approached them to talk, they have always ignored us.”

Nari Kim, an Austrian Korean whose brother Hong Kim died last year, spoke tearfully to journalists.

“It could have been prevented. No sufficient response came on time,” she said. “The government did not take it seriously, nor did they take responsibility.”

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.