Itaewon Investigators Find Disaster-Response Minutes the Interior Ministry Said Did Not Exist
The special commission investigating the Itaewon disaster says it has obtained minutes of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety had said did not exist. The finding appeared in the commission's interim report released on October 27, two days before the disaster's fourth anniversary. The records that survived differ from the account given by the agency responsible for disaster response. The commission said it would cross-check emergency calls, radio communications, video and agency records, extending its inquiry into how state authorities assessed the situation and who was responsible. Commission's official release, October 27
Newsis reported that investigators found the minutes during an on-site inquiry, contrary to the ministry's response that no such record existed. In the same report, the commission explained that 12:20 a.m. on October 30, 2022—the time Yongsan District said it had established its disaster-response headquarters—was actually when it opened the meeting room. Investigators are comparing the agency's recorded activation of the headquarters with when the response actually began. For the victims, opening a room and bringing officials together to direct a disaster response are not the same action. Newsis, October 27, 13:28; updated 14:19
The commission also said it had established that the president's instructions went unrelayed to the relevant agencies for 55 minutes. According to its account of the investigation, decisions to avoid taking charge of the disaster and to shift responsibility affected how the Interior Ministry assessed, reported and communicated the situation. Investigators are tracing the breakdown in command by establishing when reports actually passed between agencies. Commission's official materials, Newsis report
Investigators are also examining police records. According to Newsis, the commission said it found no actual dispatch to the scene in response to any of the 11 calls to the 112 emergency number warning of crowd danger before the disaster. That differs from the police's earlier account that officers had responded to four calls. The commission's official materials also said it had investigated revisions to dispatch records and how the relevant agencies compiled their response records. By comparing recorded receipt of a call, a recorded dispatch and what officers actually did, investigators have revisited the police's previous explanation. Newsis report, Commission's official materials
At the briefing, bereaved families asked what emergency treatment individual victims had received and how they had been transported. Newsis reported that commission member Yang Sung-woo replied that investigators were analyzing video and planned to examine the rescue process as well. Edaily reported criticism from families who wanted findings that went beyond what was already known, and accountable answers. Finding the minutes leaves the commission with further questions to answer: it must connect the records kept by state agencies to the rescue and transport of each victim. Newsis report, Edaily, October 27, 17:55
The commission said it plans to question former President Yoon Suk Yeol and former Interior Minister Lee Sang-min directly, and to improve the operation of the disaster headquarters, emergency medical care and arrangements for recovering victims' remains. Its announcement that it obtained minutes the ministry said did not exist follows an inquiry that went beyond accepting agencies' replies and sought out and compared the records themselves. The minutes, emergency calls, radio communications and video provide evidence for examining who made which decisions and how those decisions affected rescue and transport. Investigators can now use those records to pursue the specific rescue histories the families have demanded and establish responsibility for the state's command of the response. Commission's official materials, Newsis report