[Itaewon Disaster] Sangmin Lee: "Over 10 Identities Unconfirmed... Not an Issue Solvable by Police Pre-Deployment"

Government Emergency Briefing on Itaewon Tragedy
Joint Memorial Site to Be Set Up Possibly Today
"Police and Fire Personnel Deployed at Normal Levels"
Significant Police Forces Assigned to Gwanghwamun Rally
"Exact Number of Police Deployed in Itaewon Unconfirmed"

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is wearing a black ribbon on his chest and holding an emergency briefing related to the 'Itaewon Crowd Crush Disaster' at the Government Seoul Office briefing room on the 30th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Lee Sang-min, Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, revealed that the identities of about 10 victims of the Itaewon disaster have not been confirmed as of the previous day. Despite expectations of a large crowd, the minister stated, "Police and fire personnel were deployed at normal levels."

On the 30th, Minister Lee Sang-min explained at an emergency briefing held at the Seoul Government Complex, "More than 90% of the identities have been confirmed, but about 10 remain unidentified. One reason for this is that for those under 17 years old, resident registration is not yet established, so their identities must be confirmed individually through photos or by their families. Foreign nationals also face similar issues."

The government decided to finalize the location for the joint memorial altar today. The minister said, "We will decide in the afternoon and aim to set it up as soon as possible today," adding, "The specific location will be discussed shortly."

There have been criticisms that police and fire personnel deployment was insufficient despite expectations of large crowds in Itaewon for Halloween Day after COVID-19. The police anticipated 100,000 people gathering on Halloween and deployed 200 personnel focusing on drug and sexual crime crackdowns such as forced molestation.

Regarding this, Minister Lee said, "Compared to before, it was not a particularly large crowd to be concerned about," and added, "Unlike usual, this was not a problem that could have been resolved by pre-deployment of police or fire personnel, as we currently understand."

He also stated, "Since the situation in Itaewon did not significantly deviate from previous levels, similar levels of personnel were deployed as in normal times."

Many police personnel were deployed to respond to gatherings in Gwanghwamun, and the deployment of fire personnel on site was delayed, resulting in the first-level response being issued an hour and a half after the incident occurred.

Minister Lee said, "There were various disturbances and protests throughout Seoul yesterday, so police security forces were dispersed to those locations."

He added, "We do not have an exact count of the police forces deployed in Itaewon. A significant portion of the police security forces were deployed around Gwanghwamun. It seems that even forces from other regions were planned to be mobilized and arranged in preparation for emergencies."

Earlier, on the night of the 29th in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, tens of thousands of people gathered ahead of Halloween Day, resulting in a large-scale crush disaster. As of 9 a.m., 151 people were confirmed dead and 82 injured.

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