Park Won-soon "Entertainment venues ordered to close cannot even imagine compensation for losses"

"Large Entertainment Venue in Gangnam with Confirmed Cases, 75 Tested So Far, All Negative"
"Over 80% of Seoul Venues Already Closed Before Orders Issued"

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon is speaking at the 'COVID-19 Disaster Emergency Living Expense Support Regular Briefing' held at Seoul City Hall on the 18th of last month. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Lim Ju-hyung] Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul, stated that compensation for losses due to the closure order of entertainment establishments in Seoul is difficult.

In an interview on the 9th with KBS1 Radio's 'Kim Kyung-rae's Strongest Current Affairs,' Mayor Park said, "Since there are so many entertainment establishments, it is impossible to consider compensating all of them," adding, "We have thought about it a lot, but compensation is a secondary issue for now."

The day before, Mayor Park issued a closure order for 2,146 entertainment establishments in Seoul. He explained on the day, "Using the authority granted to the mayor under the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, we effectively ordered the suspension of business for entertainment establishments."

Regarding the status of the full investigation related to the large entertainment establishment 'Kkukku & Trend' in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, where confirmed cases of COVID-19 occurred, he said, "So far, three confirmed cases have been identified, and it has been found that 117 people had contact with them," adding, "Among them, 75 have been tested, and all results were negative."

In response to criticism that the closure order was issued too late, he emphasized, "Before issuing the closure order, we conducted on-site inspections of entertainment establishments starting from the 10th of last month and strongly recommended temporary closures, resulting in more than 80% of establishments already being closed," adding, "The establishment where confirmed cases were found had voluntarily closed since the 2nd."

Meanwhile, employee A, who worked at 'Kkukku & Trend,' was confirmed positive for COVID-19 on the 2nd. According to health authorities, A developed symptoms after contact with a male celebrity who returned from Japan last month, and subsequently, B, A's roommate and a fellow employee at the same establishment, was also confirmed positive.

A worked at the establishment for nine hours from 8 p.m. on the 27th of last month until 9 a.m. the following day, before symptoms appeared. It was confirmed that about 500 people, including staff and customers, were present at that time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.