Justice Party: "Lee Sang-min and Yoon Hee-geun have no right to investigate the cause of the Itaewon disaster... Dismiss them immediately"

Emergency Meeting Held Demanding Dismissal of Lee Sang-min and Yoon Hee-geun
Emphasis on the Need to Promote a National Investigation for Truth Clarification

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The Justice Party has urged the government to immediately dismiss Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and Commissioner of the National Police Agency Yoon Hee-geun, and to push for a parliamentary investigation to uncover the truth regarding the 'Itaewon Halloween Day crowd crush accident.'

The Justice Party leadership held an emergency delegation meeting at the National Assembly on the 2nd and announced this stance. On the same day, Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi said, "Those who caused the death of citizens through negligence cannot be entrusted with identifying the cause and countermeasures," adding, "President Yoon Seok-yeol must immediately dismiss Minister Lee and Commissioner Yoon."

Leader Lee stated, "They are neither the parties responsible for preparing countermeasures nor the ones to investigate the disaster," and added, "They are the persons responsible for this tragedy and should be subject to investigation."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding Minister Lee, she criticized, "He repeatedly inflicted wounds on the hearts of the injured citizens by saying, 'This is not a problem that can be solved with police manpower,' and 'Political claims of agitation should not be made.' Even just yesterday, when he apologized at the National Assembly, he issued guidelines to refer to the Itaewon tragedy as an accident and the victims as deceased. He was solely busy downplaying the incident and evading responsibility," she pointed out.

She also emphasized, "President Yoon, as the highest leader of the state responsible for the lives and safety of the people, must apologize to the public," adding, "This demand is the minimum requirement regarding this tragedy. True mourning and prevention of recurrence must begin with holding clear responsibility."

Floor leader Lee Eun-joo also referred to the transcript of the '112 emergency call records before the Itaewon accident' released by the National Police Agency the previous day, stating, "There is no other way to understand it except that Minister Lee was aware of the multiple emergency call records on the day of the disaster. This is a typical example of irresponsibility worse than incompetence," and condemned, "Minister Lee and Commissioner Yoon are not qualified to be responsible for uncovering the cause."

She added, "The Justice Party will push for a thorough parliamentary investigation to uncover the truth," and said, "We must definitely find out why the police consistently failed to respond in the critical situation where the lives of hundreds of citizens were at stake, whether such facts were reported in a timely manner, and why Yongsan District Office did not implement the safety measures it had previously taken."

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