[Itaewon Disaster] Ruling and Opposition Parties Agree on Bipartisan Cooperation... Political Schedule Suspended (Comprehensive)

Ahead of Halloween, President Yoon Seok-yeol is inspecting the site in the Itaewon area of Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where a large-scale crush disaster occurred on the 30th./Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The ruling and opposition parties have indicated bipartisan cooperation regarding the Itaewon Halloween incident, which resulted in over 150 deaths, and have suspended all scheduled political activities.

Kim Euigyeom, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters after the Supreme Council meeting on the 30th, "There was a joint candidate speech event scheduled today for the election of the national committee chairperson within the party, but we have decided to completely suspend the election schedule."

Earlier, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, stated in his opening remarks at the meeting, "We will actively cooperate on a bipartisan basis with the government's efforts to manage the accident and heal the victims."

Spokesperson Kim added, "Since it is autumn, many festival events were scheduled in various regions, but we have decided to cancel all festival events. We also decided to remove all banners containing political slogans."

The opposition party also decided to establish a task force at the party level to address this incident. The task force will include Park Chandae, Supreme Council member, and Lee Seongman, who serves as the party's disaster countermeasures committee chair, along with members from the Public Administration and Security Committee and the Disaster and Safety Committee.

The People Power Party also announced the formation of an internal accident management task force (TF) on the same day and requested bipartisan cooperation. In response, spokesperson Kim said, "We have not yet received a proposal, so we have not discussed specifics, but the basic stance is to cooperate bipartisanship on this accident, as managing this accident is the top priority. Personally, I think we will accept the proposal if it comes."

Regarding Nam Young-hee, deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute, who claimed that the relocation of the presidential office was the cause of the accident, Kim said it was a "personal opinion" and that "we agreed that such content on Facebook was inappropriate."

Nam Young-hee posted on her social network service (SNS) earlier that day, "The root cause of all this lies with the security personnel concentrated at the Yongsan Ministry of National Defense presidential office," and "This is a major disaster caused by the hasty and forced relocation of the Blue House. It is because of President Yoon Seok-yeol, who still commutes from Acrovista in Seocho-dong." This post has since been deleted.

Regarding visits to the accident site, spokesperson Kim said, "We are cautious," and added, "Visits or on-site inspections and meetings with bereaved families will be conducted once by Supreme Council member Park Chandae, who will take the lead on a practical level to inspect the site."

Accordingly, attention is focused on whether the political chill triggered by the 'Democratic Research Institute search' will thaw and whether cooperation between the ruling and opposition parties will begin. On the same day, Yang Geum-hee, chief spokesperson for the People Power Party, said after the emergency committee meeting on the 30th, "We discussed whether political disputes should be stopped at least during this period. It does not seem to be something that can be done by us alone, and we believe the Democratic Party will also participate. We agreed to do our best to prevent political disputes caused by rumors related to the accident."

In this regard, Yang also expressed willingness to meet with the Democratic Party leadership to discuss countermeasures together. Yang said, "We are fully willing to do so," and added, "If a task force (TF) is needed within the party to manage the accident, we will form one, and if that TF needs to join forces with the opposition party leader, we are open to all possibilities."

The emergency committee meeting on the same day also discussed the party's response to the accident. He explained, "We announced the suspension of all local party association events and asked party members to cooperate in comforting the bereaved families and ensuring thorough accident management during the national mourning period announced by the president."

Regarding plans to visit the accident site and bereaved families, he said, "We are concerned that visits by lawmakers might actually hinder the recovery efforts," and added, "If it does not interfere with the recovery, we will look for what we can do." He dismissed Nam Young-hee's claims as "not even worth commenting on."

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