South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday slammed the country’s police for their lack of action in the Oct. 29 tragedy in Seoul as the investigation continues and the number of people charged widens.
Yongsan district police chief Lee Im Jae, who has been suspended from duty and pay, is now facing charges over the Halloween party that left more than 150 people dead in a stampede. He is also being investigated along with two other officers accused of negligence.
Both the Seoul Police and the Seoul Fire Department have been the target of numerous criticisms since the tragedy due to the lack of measures put in place to prevent or reduce the number of victims.
Initial investigations indicate that dozens of calls were made to emergency services reporting danger in Itaewon due to the high level of street crowding.
The team investigating the incident has accused Lee of arriving late at the scene of the incident and not informing his superiors as soon as possible. More than 7,000 documents related to the tragedy have been collected so far, according to Yonhap news agency.
The president of the country, who has apologized for what happened, has accused the police of being slow in giving an adequate response to the emergency. He criticized the words of the police, who said they lacked the necessary authority to act on the day of the incident.
«Who is responsible for preventing accidents in terms of safety? The police,» he said, before adding that «it goes beyond common sense that the police did not know that more people would gather than expected».
In this sense, he stressed that despite the fact that they have «sources of information with great capabilities, they were waiting for four hours». «They should have taken action much earlier and even if there were no calls to 112,» he asserted.
Yoon admitted that the president of the country serves as a «security control tower» but said that «to be effective, it is important for the authorities to quickly report different situations».
Thus, he has once again asked the government to address the issue in a «responsible» way and put in place preventive measures to avoid similar cases. «We need innovations in police preparedness against these accidents to protect the population,» he said.
