Gwangju City Changes Term for Itaewon Incident from 'Deceased' to 'Victims'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City has changed the term for the ‘accident deceased’ to ‘victims’ in relation to the Itaewon tragedy.

On the 2nd, Gwangju City announced that it made this decision after comprehensively considering the public’s aversion to the term ‘accident deceased’ and the ongoing social controversy.

Currently, Gwangju City has changed the name of the joint memorial altar set up on the first floor of Gwangju City Hall from ‘Itaewon Accident Deceased Joint Memorial Altar’ to ‘Itaewon Tragedy Victims Joint Memorial Altar.’

Previously, Gwangju City installed a sign reading ‘Itaewon Accident Deceased’ at the center of the joint memorial altar as per the government’s recommendation to use the term ‘accident deceased,’ but later removed it and replaced it with portraits of the victims accompanied by photos of white chrysanthemums on a black background.

Mayor Kang Ki-jung said, “At first, I followed the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s guidelines, fearing that controversy might arise that would go against the initial mourning atmosphere of the tragedy, but now that it is clear that the police’s initial response failure was a cause, I feel that we must properly mourn those who were sacrificed. Since the public also thinks so, I hope the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will issue revised guidelines.”

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