Seoul Police Agency Senior Officials Rush to Work Only After 3 Hours Since Disaster

On the afternoon of the 2nd, when the police special investigation unit investigating the poor response to the 'Itaewon disaster' began a forced investigation into the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Yongsan Police Station, and Yongsan District Office, the entrance of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in Jongno-gu was seen.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] It was confirmed on the 5th that not only Kim Gwang-ho, the Commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, but also other key executives of the Seoul Police Agency arrived at the office three hours after the Itaewon disaster occurred.

According to data submitted by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to Assemblyman Chun Joon-ho of the Democratic Party of Korea, the Public Safety Deputy Commissioner arrived at the Seoul Police Agency around 1:25 a.m. on the 30th of last month, the day after the disaster, and the Head of the Security Department arrived three minutes later at 1:28 a.m. Both are executives overseeing the direct units within Seoul. It was confirmed that they left for home immediately after the downtown rally ended the previous day and returned to the office about four hours later.

In addition, other key executives such as the Deputy Commissioner for Investigation, the Head of the Community Safety Department, and the Deputy Commissioner for Autonomous Police also arrived at the Seoul Police Agency between three to six hours after the disaster occurred. This can be interpreted as evidence that they recognized the accident belatedly and hurriedly came to work. In particular, one executive was traveling outside the area and rushed to work after hearing the news of the accident.

Commissioner Kim was also confirmed to have left work around 8:36 p.m. on the day of the disaster after the downtown rally ended. He took the subway to return home to his residence in Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu. He missed three consecutive calls from Lee Im-jae, former Chief of Yongsan Police Station, around 11:34 p.m., and only recognized the accident after answering the fourth call. He then took a taxi and arrived at the disaster site around 12:25 a.m. Commissioner Kim convened a countermeasure meeting related to the Itaewon accident at 4:50 a.m. on the 30th.

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