Yoon Chairs Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters Meeting at Government Seoul Office on Itaewon Crowd Crush Tragedy

Prime Minister Han and Minister of the Interior Lee Sang-min Attend

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] President Yoon Suk-yeol presided over a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters (CDSCH) meeting at the Gwanghwamun Government Seoul Office Situation Room on the 30th regarding the 'Itaewon crowd crush disaster.'

The spokesperson's office announced at 2:44 a.m. that the CDSCH meeting chaired by President Yoon was in progress.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min attended the meeting.

Before presiding over the CDSCH meeting, President Yoon issued two directives on the 29th and 30th concerning the Itaewon incident, including emergency rescue, urgent inspections of event venues nationwide, and dispatching emergency medical teams. Afterwards, he held an emergency situation inspection meeting at the Yongsan Presidential Office, ordering the securing of ambulance routes and crowd control.

The previous night, in the Itaewon-dong area of Yongsan-gu, a massive crowd of at least tens of thousands gathered at once ahead of Halloween, resulting in a large-scale crowd crush disaster.

As of around 2 a.m., the fire authorities reported that 59 people died and 150 were injured in this crowd crush accident.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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