Jeonnam Province Puts Full Effort into Managing Itaewon Disaster Aftermath and Follow-up Measures

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province is making every effort to prepare follow-up measures, including budget support for managing the Itaewon disaster, adding crush accident coverage to the residents' safety mutual aid insurance, and enacting ordinances for safety management of mass gatherings, along with other institutional improvements.

On the 4th, the province announced that it will form joint inspection teams with city and county governments to conduct special safety inspections in facilities, electrical, and fire sectors at major festival sites within the jurisdiction.

In particular, improvements to the residents' safety mutual aid insurance system to support crush accidents are also underway.

The residents' safety mutual aid insurance is a system where Jeonnam Province and city/county governments share insurance premiums to support the livelihood stabilization of residents affected by disasters and accidents.

Currently, there is no coverage item for crush accidents. Accordingly, Jeonnam Province has proposed adding this coverage to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and is negotiating with private casualty insurance companies to include this coverage item.

Additionally, under the special directive of Governor Kim Young-rok, the current civil defense cyber education will mandatorily include behavioral guidelines for crush accidents to respond to disasters like this, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training will be provided to all provincial government employees.

An ordinance titled “Jeollanam-do Ordinance on Safety Management of Mass Gatherings” will also be enacted to manage safety at mass gatherings expected to have no specific organizer, and improvements to all safety-related local laws will be reviewed.

To support disaster psychological recovery for victims' families and visitors to joint memorial altars, a “Village Safety Bus” will operate. From the 5th to the 25th, psychological recovery counseling will be provided at the provincial joint memorial altar, Mokpo City Peace Plaza, and Jangseong Station Plaza.

Jeonnam Province also decided to promptly support funeral expenses and livelihood stabilization funds for three deceased residents (one from Jangseong, two from Mokpo) as the support standards for victims of the “Itaewon disaster” are determined by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, using provincial contingency funds first.

The support amount is 15 million KRW per deceased for funeral expenses (fixed amount), 20 million KRW for livelihood stabilization support (death), totaling 35 million KRW. The costs are shared with 15% each from provincial and city/county budgets (5.25 million KRW each) and 70% from national funds (24.5 million KRW) per person.

Lim Man-gyu, Director of the Social Disaster Division of Jeonnam Province, said, “We will focus all administrative efforts on the prompt support for the victims of the Itaewon disaster and on prevention and follow-up measures to ensure that such disasters do not occur again.”

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