[Reporter’s Notebook] Was It Just a Platform for the Minister’s Apology... Administrative Safety Committee’s Lackluster Briefing

Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min attended an emergency briefing on the Itaewon disaster held at the National Assembly on the 1st and is delivering the briefing. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

"Why on earth should the National Assembly and the Administrative Safety Committee play a mere supporting role to the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's attitude of telling us to say nothing and just mourn?" (Yong Hye-in, Basic Income Party lawmaker)

"What is there that we don't know among the information coming out now? We know everything. This is a comprehensive report covering all the information reported in the media." (Moon Jin-seok, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker)

The full meeting of the Administrative Safety Committee held at the National Assembly on the 1st ended in about 40 minutes. Considering that this standing committee oversees the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the National Police Agency, and the Fire Agency, which are responsible for the Itaewon disaster, the meeting was very short for a session held immediately after the accident. The microphones of the committee members attending the meeting were not turned on even for a moment despite their requests. This was because it was agreed between the ruling and opposition parties not to conduct urgent questioning but only to receive reports from government authorities.

Although it was agreed between the ruling and opposition parties not to conduct urgent questioning so that the authorities could focus on handling the accident, it raises the question of whether there was any reason to summon the officials to the National Assembly in the first place. Moreover, the content reported by the minister and the police chief that day had already been disclosed to the media and was not new.

It is said that the opposition Democratic Party of Korea requested this urgent report first. The ruling party argued that the report should be postponed until after the mourning period, but the opposition insisted that since the Administrative Safety Committee had done nothing immediately after the accident, at least a report should be received. In conclusion, it became a 'show report.' Opposition lawmakers strongly raised issues immediately after the meeting ended, saying that the minister's apology and the urgent report were insufficient, that someone should be held accountable, and that a thorough investigation should be conducted. It backfired instead.

The only achievement was that it elicited the first official apology from Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min. However, it remains questionable whether the National Assembly needed to intervene and provide a platform for the minister to make an apology without any questioning. Such urgent reports are worse than not having them at all.

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