Daegum Forms 'Osong Disaster Investigation Headquarters'... Chief Baeyongwon, Chief Prosecutor of Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office

Deputy Director Jeong Hee-do, Chief of Inspection Division 1 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office has formed an investigation headquarters to thoroughly investigate the Osong Underpass disaster, where numerous casualties occurred due to flooding caused by heavy rain.

The head of the investigation headquarters will be Chief Prosecutor Bae Yong-won (55, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 27) of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, which has jurisdiction over the Osong area, and the deputy head will be Jeong Hee-do, Chief of Inspection Division 1 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (57, class 31).

Seoul Seocho-dong Supreme Prosecutors' Office building. Photo by Younghan Heo younghan@

On the 21st, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office stated, "This morning, we received a request for investigation from the Office for Government Policy Coordination regarding the Osong Underpass flooding accident. We have appointed Chief Prosecutor Bae Yong-won of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office as the head of the investigation headquarters and Jeong Hee-do, Chief of Inspection Division 1 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, as the deputy head. We have dispatched prosecutors with experience and expertise in disaster investigations to form the investigation headquarters. We will do our utmost to identify the cause of the accident through a thorough investigation and hold those responsible strictly accountable."

The Office for Government Policy Coordination requested an investigation by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office into six police officers related to the Osong Underpass disaster earlier that morning.

In a press release distributed that day, the Office for Government Policy Coordination stated, "The inspection revealed serious errors in the handling of the 112 emergency call incident, and during the process of understanding the police response situation, false reports were even made to the Prime Minister's Office. We judged that a swift and fair investigation is necessary."

Earlier, on the 15th, at the Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk Province, heavy rain caused the Miho River embankment to break, allowing river water to flood in and submerge 17 vehicles, including city buses. This accident resulted in 14 deaths and 11 injuries, totaling 25 casualties.

According to the police, Chief Jeong Hee-young of the Heungdeok Police Station reportedly received the first telephone report regarding the underpass situation from the Osong Police Substation chief around 10 a.m. on the day of the incident, 1 hour and 20 minutes after the accident occurred.

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