Yang Kyung-sook likens 'New Military Regime's Gwangju Massacre of Civilians': "Yoon Government Causes Mass Deaths in Narrow Alleys of Itaewon"

"Even if they had fired blanks to clear the way, they should have saved 156 young people"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] On the 8th, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's response to the 'Itaewon crowd crush disaster' during the National Assembly's Steering Committee audit, drawing comparisons to the hardline suppression by the new military regime during the May 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement, which at one point sparked backlash from ruling party lawmakers.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On that day, during the audit targeting the Presidential Secretariat, Representative Yang asked Kim Dae-gi, Chief of the Presidential Secretariat, "Where on earth were the Minister of the Interior and Safety, the Mayor of Seoul, the Commissioner of the National Police Agency, the Chief of Yongsan Police Station, and the District Mayor, when it was obvious that more than 100,000 people would gather?"

She then said, "Just as the new military regime in 1980 mobilized the army to massacre civilians in Gwangju, the Park Geun-hye administration drowned hundreds of students on a school trip in the Sewol ferry disaster, and now the Yoon Seok-yeol administration drove young people into a narrow alley in Itaewon, leading to a massacre."

In response, Chief Kim drew a line, saying, "Connecting it to that extent is a bit much."

Representative Yang raised her voice, saying, "They should have at least fired warning shots to clear the way or sounded emergency sirens to save the 156 young people. Why couldn't they save them? Can the national governance system be completely paralyzed, and the core and foundation of power be sick, yet allow a massacre to be neglected?"

She also pointed out, showing a video of President Yoon visiting the disaster site on the 30th of last month and saying, "There must have been concussions and such," that "It blatantly reveals that they have no grasp of the situation at all."

Representative Yang said, "It reminds me of former President Park Geun-hye's first question at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters seven hours after the Sewol ferry sinking, asking, 'Is it difficult to find the life jackets that were reportedly worn?'" adding, "President Yoon's remarks at the site are logically unacceptable. It can only be seen as going to the site without knowing anything."

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