Itaewon Special Committee Requests Investigation into Mayor Park Heeyoung and Others

Ordered Removal of Leaflets...
Allegations of Perjury and Abuse of Authority

The Special Investigation Committee for Uncovering the Truth and Preventing the Recurrence of the October 29 Itaewon Disaster (Itaewon Special Committee) has requested an investigation into Park Heeyoung, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, and Song Eunyoung, former Itaewon Station Manager.

On the morning of May 8, during its 57th meeting at the committee office in Jung-gu, Seoul, the Itaewon Special Committee resolved to request an investigation into Mayor Park and former Station Manager Song on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

On March 13, at the Korea Federation of Banks building in Jung-gu, Seoul, Park Heeyoung, Mayor of Yongsan District, appeared as a witness at the hearing of the Special Investigation Committee on the October 29 Itaewon Disaster for Fact-Finding and Recurrence Prevention. Photo by Yonhap News.

According to the Itaewon Special Committee, Mayor Park is suspected of having instructed the chief of staff to order the duty office to remove leaflets critical of then-President Yoon Suk-yeol and his spouse immediately, following a request from the police on October 29, 2022, the day of the fatal crowd crush. The duty to remove leaflets is not a required task under the duty shift regulations.

The Itaewon Special Committee pointed out that, due to Mayor Park’s directive, duty personnel who were supposed to be dispatched to manage the crowd situation in Itaewon were instead assigned to collect the leaflets, preventing them from performing disaster response work.

At the Itaewon Special Committee hearing held in March, Mayor Park appeared as a witness and claimed, "I have never discussed any work related to removing the leaflets." Former Station Manager Song also testified that there was neither a prior agreement regarding non-stop train service at Itaewon Station nor a police request for non-stop service on the day of the disaster.

An official from the Itaewon Special Committee explained, "We decided to request this investigation because we determined that the testimonies given by Mayor Park and former Station Manager Song at the hearing did not match the facts." The Itaewon Special Committee plans to submit the investigation request to the joint police and prosecution investigation team for the Itaewon disaster at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office at around 2 p.m. on the same day.

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