Itaewon crowd crush: thousands join vigil as anger grows in South Korea

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Thousands of people gathered near Seoul’s city hall on Saturday to commemorate the 156 people killed in a Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon last weekend.

Christian and Buddhist leaders spoke on stage, demanding President Yoon Suk-yeol step down and asking how the country could mourn without knowing the truth behind the deaths.

People of all ages, including foreign nationals, were present holding signs that read: “The people are dying, do you call this a country?” and “Your resignation is our grief.”

A separate candlelight vigil was organised nearby by progressive youth groups, where they chanted: “This could have been prevented, the state was not there. They could have been saved, Yoon Suk-yeol take responsibility”.

The victims, mostly young people, were among the estimated 100,000 that flocked to the popular Itaewon nightlife district to celebrate the first post-pandemic Halloween.

South Korean law enforcement officials have conceded that there was insufficient safety planning and opposition politicians have accused the government of not taking responsibility for the disaster.

Reflecting that anger, a woman identified by local media as the mother of one of the victims was seen ripping apart the floral wreaths left by the president and Seoul’s mayor at a memorial on Friday.

“What’s the point of [these flowers] when they couldn’t protect [our children]? Think about it,” she was seen saying in footage broadcast by local TV stations.

“What’s the point of standing next to these [wreaths] when you let our babies die?”

Uniformed police officers were seen escorting the woman away from the memorial, located outside Seoul city hall.

On Friday Yoon expressed his “deep sadness and sorry heart”, stopping short of a direct apology that many of his critics are demanding.

“I know that our government and I … have a huge responsibility to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again,” he said.

Yoon – who is with the conservative People Power party – has been battling record low approval ratings since taking office in May, and his political opponents are now taking aim at his government over the Halloween crush.

A civic group linked to the main opposition party was due to hold candlelight vigils across the country on Saturday evening, including in Seoul, Busan, Gwangju and Jeju.

A group of young Koreans was expected to hold a separate commemoration in central Seoul.

“I can’t believe people of my age died just because they wanted to have some fun on Halloween,” said Park Tae-hoon, 29, one of the organisers of that rally and a member of the progressive Jinbo political party.

“It was only yesterday that the president apologised,” he said, adding that the purpose of the march was to demand punishment for those responsible and measures to prevent a recurrence of the tragedy.

South Korea is in a period of national mourning that ends on Saturday, with flags flying at half-mast and entertainment events cancelled.

Public scrutiny of how the Halloween crowd was managed is mounting, and a wide-ranging investigation is under way into the cause of the crush.

With no single organiser for the Halloween celebrations, the government did not require any of the bars, clubs and restaurants – some located on Itaewon’s narrow alleys and side streets – to submit a safety management plan.

Though police had estimated beforehand that a crowd of 100,000 would participate, they deployed 137 officers – compared with the 6,500 sent to another part of Seoul that night for a much smaller anti-government protest.