SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s parliament passed a law Thursday requiring a new, independent investigation into Seoul’s 2022 Halloween crowd, where 159 people were killed.
The unicameral National Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 256 to 0. It becomes law after it is signed by the President Yoon Suk Yeol and announced by his governing body – steps that are considered formalities since the president and his ruling party have already agreed on the legislation.
The bill aims to address the root cause of the collision, provide details of how authorities handled the disaster and who should be held responsible. It also plans to set up a nine-member investigative committee to independently investigate the disaster for up to 15 months.
Once the committee determines who is responsible and who should face charges, it will report them to government investigators. The authorities would then complete the investigation against the suspects within three months, according to the draft law.
The clash, one of South Korea’s biggest peacetime disasters, sparked widespread sadness across the country. The victims, most of whom were in their 20s and 30s, had gathered in Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon for Halloween celebrations.
In the wake of the tragedy, there was also anger that the government had again ignored safety and regulatory issues, despite lessons learned since the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, which killed 304 people – mostly teenagers on a school trip .
In early 2023, a special police investigation concluded that police and local officials failed to formulate effective crowd control measures, despite correctly anticipating large numbers of people in Itaewon. At the time, investigators said police also ignored hotline calls from pedestrians warning of rising crowds before the surge turned deadly.
More than 20 police and other officials faced trial over the disaster but few senior officials were charged or held accountable, prompting bereaved families and opposition lawmakers to call for an independent investigation.
President Yoon had previously spoken out against a new investigation into the disaster.
However, during a meeting with liberal opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Monday, Yoon said he would not object to resolving some existing disputes, such as whether the investigative committee could seek arrest warrants.
Yoon’s position shifted as he faced increasing public calls for cooperation with Lee’s Democratic Party, which won a landslide victory in the April 10 general election, extending its control of Parliament for another four years.
At a meeting with Yoon’s ruling People Power Party on Wednesday, Lee’s party agreed to remove controversial clauses from the bill.
“I cannot express how happy it is that we can now pass the special law,” Democratic Party chief politician Jin Sung-joon said before the vote. “We accepted the demands of President Yoon Suk Yeol and his ruling party in the face of desperate pleas from the bereaved who said they could not wait any longer.”