Yongsan District Office Executives Replace Mobile Phones, Evidence Tampering Suspected... Investigation of Senior Police Officers Accelerates

District Chief Park Hee-young Buys iPhone... Executive Who 'Dropped It in Toilet' Also Replaced
Im Jae Faces Arrest Warrant for False Official Documents... Ryu Mi-jin Charged with Negligent Homicide

Yongsan District Mayor Park Hee-young is attending an emergency inquiry on the Itaewon disaster held at the National Assembly on the 7th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Evidence has emerged suggesting that Park Hee-young, the district mayor of Yongsan-gu (61), along with other senior officials at Yongsan District Office, attempted to destroy evidence by claiming to have changed or lost their mobile phones following the Itaewon tragedy. The Police Agency's Special Investigation Headquarters (Special Investigation Unit) has also found clues that some witnesses tried to hide evidence in the same manner and plans to secure the custody of Yongsan District Office officials soon.

According to the police on the 15th, Mayor Park purchased a new iPhone on November 5, a week after the tragedy, replacing his previously used Samsung Galaxy model. The Special Investigation Unit seized the iPhone during a search of Park’s office on November 8, three days later. At that time, Park did not provide the password to investigators. The Special Investigation Unit requested the password ahead of forensic analysis on November 22, and Park only disclosed the password to the investigation team three days later, on November 25.

Moon In-hwan, Director of the Safety, Construction, and Transportation Bureau and the person responsible for disaster safety operations, is also known to have dropped his phone into a toilet after the tragedy and subsequently obtained a new phone. The Special Investigation Unit is considering applying for arrest warrants on the grounds of evidence destruction, suspecting that they purchased new phones to conceal their whereabouts and various communication traces before and after the tragedy.

There is also a possibility that the Special Investigation Unit will attempt to secure the custody of Song Eun-young, the stationmaster of Itaewon Station, who is at the center of the controversy over non-stop passage. Song is currently under investigation on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury for failing to implement a non-stop passage despite a significant increase in passengers alighting at Itaewon Station on the day of the tragedy, which exacerbated casualties. Song has denied the charges during suspect interrogations and reportedly also denies having received a police request for non-stop passage about 40 minutes before the incident.

Former Yongsan Police Chief (Senior Superintendent) Lee Im-jae, who was subject to an arrest warrant request over allegations of inadequate response to the Itaewon disaster and deletion of information reports, is leaving the Western District Court in Mapo-gu, Seoul, after completing the pre-arrest detention hearing (warrant review) on the 5th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Additional investigations are also underway for police officials at the superintendent level, including former Yongsan Police Station Chief Lee Im-jae (53) and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Personnel Training Division Chief Ryu Mi-jin (50).

The Special Investigation Unit plans to reapply for an arrest warrant against former Chief Lee, adding charges of falsification and use of false official documents to the existing charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, as he is believed to have reviewed and approved a situation report containing false information immediately after the tragedy. On October 29, the day of the tragedy, Lee arrived at the Itaewon Police Substation near the accident site at around 11:05 p.m. However, the Yongsan Police Station’s situation report recorded his arrival as 10:17 p.m., shortly after the tragedy.

Regarding former Chief Ryu, who worked as the Situation Manager at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on the day of the tragedy, the Special Investigation Unit plans to continue the investigation by changing the charge from dereliction of duty to professional negligence resulting in death and injury. The unit concluded that Ryu’s departure from his post delayed the dissemination of information, which increased the scale of casualties, thus applying the charge of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. However, they excluded the charge of dereliction of duty for now, judging that there was no intentional abandonment of duty to avoid performing his role as Situation Manager.

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