Chungbuk Governor and Cheongju Mayor Receive First Report One Hour After 'Osong Disaster' Occurs

It has been confirmed that Kim Young-hwan, Governor of Chungbuk Province, and Lee Beom-seok, Mayor of Cheongju City, who were the heads of the Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters during the Cheongju Osong Underpass disaster that resulted in 24 casualties, were not reported to in a timely manner.

On the morning of the 18th, firefighters, police, and other officials are conducting internal cleanup and searching for belongings at the search and rescue site of Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, which was flooded due to the collapse of the Miho River embankment.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 19th, Chungbuk Province partially disclosed Governor Kim’s movements on the day of the accident during a briefing. According to this, Governor Kim received the first report related to the underpass flooding at 9:44 a.m., about an hour after the accident occurred.

Park Jun-gyu, Director of the Provincial Disaster and Safety Office, said, "At that time, the exact details of the underpass accident were not yet understood, and we had just finished an emergency disaster situation countermeasure meeting due to concerns about overflow and collapse of the Goesan Dam." He added, "Governor Kim judged that the situation at Goesan Dam was more serious, so he headed to Goesan around 10 a.m., and Executive Vice Governor Lee Woo-jong went to the Osong underpass accident site."

After arriving in Goesan, Governor Kim inspected the Goesan Dam and the Chilseong-myeon Community Center where residents had evacuated, then headed to Osong around 11:20 a.m. On the way to Osong, Governor Kim stopped to check on crop flood damage in the Oksan area. Ultimately, Governor Kim arrived at the Osong accident site only at 1:20 p.m.

Earlier, Chungbuk Province had received three phone calls from the Administrative City Construction Agency (Haengbokcheong) at 6:31 a.m., 6:38 a.m., and 7:02 a.m., warning of the risk of Miho River Bridge flooding before the accident occurred, but it was revealed that this information was not shared with related departments such as the Road Management Office.

Lee Beom-seok, Mayor of Cheongju City, who commands the city’s disaster and emergency situations, also received the first report related to the Osong accident around the same time as Governor Kim. Cheongju City stated, "The secretary’s office first reported the situation to the mayor around 9:40 a.m." Vice Mayor Shin Byung-dae visited the site first at around 10:40 a.m. It was reported that Mayor Lee was directing the scene in the flooded areas of Sinbong-dong and Mochung-dong at that time. Vice Mayor Shin reported the occurrence of casualties to Mayor Lee around 1:50 p.m., and Mayor Lee was confirmed to have arrived at the site only at 2:40 p.m.

At the Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju City, around 8:40 a.m. on the 15th, 17 vehicles including city buses were submerged by river water that flowed in after the nearby Miho River embankment burst. This accident resulted in 14 deaths and 10 injuries.

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