Park Hong-geun: "'Memo of President Yoon's Itaewon Disaster Remarks' Exists... He Must Explain Directly"

Kim Jin-pyo Former National Assembly Speaker Memoir Fallout Spreads
Opposition Parties Repeatedly Urge President Yoon for Explanation

Former National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo mentioned the possibility of the ‘Itaewon disaster being fabricated’ by President Yoon Seok-yeol in his memoir, sparking controversy. In response, Park Hong-geun, who was the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea at the time of the disaster, criticized that the president accepted the claims of far-right YouTubers without any filtering.

On the 1st, Park appeared on MBC Radio’s ‘Kim Jong-bae’s Focus’ and explained the situation at the time, saying, “From 2 to 3 days before the event festival, the president mentioned three broadcasting stations (MBC, KBS, JTBC) and used the expression ‘left-wing media,’ so I was able to confirm the president’s view on the media while taking notes. I also heard suspicions that the event was designed to attract many people, which I noted down.”

President Yoon Suk-yeol is delivering a memorial address at the first anniversary memorial service for the Itaewon tragedy held at Yeongam Church in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, on October 29 last year. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding President Yoon’s mention of the possibility of the Itaewon disaster being fabricated, Park said, “From what I recorded and heard about the president’s remarks that day, there was a comment like ‘If the police chief had made only one lane a pedestrian road, this wouldn’t have happened,’ but the fault does not lie with the media.” He added, “The media actually published articles predicting that many people would gather in advance, so it was naturally the government’s role to deploy police and district office administrative personnel to prevent such an accident beforehand.”

On the 28th of last month, when former Speaker Kim’s memoir shook the political world, Park drew attention by revealing on his Facebook, “The conversation content that former Speaker Kim conveyed to me is still in my notepad.”

According to Park’s notes, at the time of the disaster, President Yoon said, “There is suspicion about why left-wing media such as MBC, KBS, and JTBC aired broadcasts 2 to 3 days before the accident encouraging people to gather,” and “I have suspicions that this was not an accidental occurrence but a criminal incident by specific forces or individuals.”

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