Office for Government Policy Coordination Requests Prosecution Investigation of Chungbuk Province and Happiness Agency over 'Osong Tragedy'

Public Office Inspection to Begin from the 17th
Chungbuk Province and Happiness Agency Judged Negligence of Duty

On the 24th, the Office for Government Policy Coordination announced that it has requested the prosecution to investigate officials from Chungbuk Province and the Administrative City Construction Agency (행복청, Haengbokcheong) in relation to the 'Osong Underpass Disaster.'

The Public Service Management Office of the Office for Government Policy Coordination stated in a press release that “while conducting an inspection to clarify the Osong-eup Gungpyeong 2nd Underpass disaster in Cheongju, serious negligence of duty by officials from the Chungcheongbuk-do headquarters, the Road Management Office, and Haengbokcheong was discovered, leading to a request for further investigation.”

The Office for Government Policy Coordination is reported to believe that the Chungbuk Provincial Government received multiple warnings about flood risks before the disaster but failed to take appropriate measures such as traffic control. Regarding the temporary embankment construction that caused the disaster, the Office concluded that Haengbokcheong did not properly manage or supervise the contractor’s illegal and substandard work.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Since the 17th, the Office for Government Policy Coordination has been conducting inspections targeting agencies involved in the disaster response.

On the 21st, following the inspection results, it was revealed that the police made errors in handling the 112 emergency call incident and even submitted false reports to the Prime Minister’s Office during the process of assessing the police response. Consequently, six police officers were referred to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office for investigation.

On the morning of the same day, the prosecution dispatched investigators to the Chungbuk Provincial Police Agency, Chungbuk Provincial Government Office, Cheongju City Hall, Haengbokcheong, and Chungbuk Fire Headquarters to conduct simultaneous raids and other compulsory investigations.

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