Kim Dong-yeon Visits Memorial Altar Four Days in a Row: "Government's Disaster Prevention, Management, and Response Inadequate... Will Establish Drastic Measures"

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon visited the joint memorial altar set up on the first floor of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building on the 3rd, paid his respects, and read the condolence notes written by the residents.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, announced that he will prepare special measures to prevent a second Itaewon tragedy. He also strongly condemned the government authorities and related agencies for their inadequate prevention, management, and response to the recent disaster. Governor Kim has been visiting the joint memorial altar for the victims of the tragedy every day without fail to pay his respects.

On the morning of the 3rd, Governor Kim visited the Itaewon tragedy joint memorial altar set up in the lobby on the first floor of the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building in Gwanggyo, Suwon. After paying his respects, he criticized, "As a public official, I feel deeply ashamed and devastated. The preventive measures that were not properly implemented, the failure to manage the situation adequately on site, and the response immediately after the disaster?all of these were serious problems."

He continued, "All of this is the responsibility of the authorities and public institutions. Gyeonggi Province promises that once the mourning period ends, we will prepare special measures that can be immediately put into practice to prevent such accidents or tragedies from happening again."

He added, "I know very well that no consolation can truly comfort those who have suffered such an event, so I sincerely offer my heartfelt apologies and my shame as a public official once again. The victims enshrined in Gyeonggi Province, whether they are residents of Gyeonggi or not, are all fellow citizens of the Republic of Korea. Gyeonggi Province will do its utmost until the very end," he pledged.

Since the joint memorial altars were set up at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building in Gwanggyo, Suwon, and the Northern Office in Uijeongbu on the 31st of last month, Governor Kim has visited the altars daily for four consecutive days to pay his respects.

In particular, on the right side of the joint memorial altar, there are Post-it notes with messages written by mourners. On this day, Governor Kim prayed for the victims' souls and spent several minutes reading the messages from the residents carefully.

Among the Post-it notes was a message from a victim’s family saying, "OO, may you be happy in a place without pain or sorrow." There was also a note that appeared to be written by a child in shaky handwriting, saying, "Unnie and oppa, rest well in heaven. And be happy." Governor Kim wrote, "I am ashamed. I am sorry. Rest in peace."

Earlier, starting from the afternoon of the 31st of last month, the province set up an online space for residents who could not visit the joint memorial altar in person to pay their respects virtually.

By clicking the main banner on the Gyeonggi Province website, users are directed to the "Itaewon Tragedy Victims Online Memorial" board where they can leave tribute messages.

In addition to the website, those who received the KakaoTalk notification message from Gyeonggi Province can also leave memorial messages in the message thread. For those who are not channel friends and did not receive the message, they can still leave messages in the memorial section of the Gyeonggi Province KakaoTalk channel news menu.

As of 9 a.m. on the 3rd, the total number of visitors to the online memorial reached approximately 213,000. Notably, the website recorded a peak concurrent user count of 30,000. The total number of memorial messages was 12,111, including 8,197 on the website and 3,914 on KakaoTalk.

Some of the messages posted on the website included: "Such flower-like children were so brutally lost... I pray that you rest peacefully in a better place," "I don’t know if these words will comfort the families of the deceased, but please stay strong," and "It’s still hard to believe that ordinary people my age, who I might have passed by once or twice, met such a tragic death in the heart of Seoul."

The province plans to share memorial messages with residents through various outdoor media, including the Snowball media art installation at Gwanggyo Lake Park in Suwon, apartment media boards, and G Bus TV.

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