South Korea approves probe into deadly Halloween crush in 2022, which claimed 159 lives

South Korea’s government voted to start a new investigation into the Halloween stampede in Seoul that killed 159 people.

The one group of lawmakers called the National Assembly approved the bill with a vote of 256-0. It will become a law after the conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol signs it and his government agency approves it. These are just formal steps because the president and his ruling party already agreed on the law.

The bill wants to find out why the crush happened, how the authorities responded to it, and who is responsible for it. It plans to make a group of nine people who will look into the disaster on their own for up to 15 months.

After the committee figures out who is to blame and who should be charged, they will tell the government’s investigators. The police would have to finish looking into the suspects within three months, as the new law says.

The crush was a big disaster in South Korea that made a lot of people very sad. Most of the people who were hurt were in their 20s and 30s. They had met in a popular area in Seoul called Itaewon to celebrate Halloween.

After the tragedy, people were mad at the government for not taking safety and rules seriously, even though they should have learned from the ferry sinking in 2014. That accident killed 304 people, most of them were teenagers on a school trip.

In early 2023, the police found that they didn’t plan well for a large crowd in Itaewon, even though they knew it would happen. At that time, investigators said police didn’t listen to calls from people who warned about a big crowd before it became dangerous.

Over 20 police and other officials are being tried for the disaster, but few high-ranking officials have been charged or held responsible. This has made families of the victims and opposition lawmakers ask for a separate investigation.

Before the vote, Kim Kyo-heung, a member of the Democratic Party and head of the safety committee in parliament, said he hoped that the investigation would find out who is responsible for the disaster and why it happened. He also wants to come up with a plan to stop this from happening again.

The families of the victims were happy about the new law and showed their support by gathering outside the National Assembly.

Lee Jeong-min, who speaks for the families, said today is a very special day for our grieving families. “We couldn’t have done it without the help of opposition politicians and lots of people who supported us. ” I want to thank them a lot.

President Yoon had said no to a new investigation of the disaster before. In January, he said no to a bill for an independent investigation of the Itaewon crush that had been approved by parliament.

But, when he met with Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung on Monday, he said he wouldn’t disagree with it, as long as some current disagreements are fixed, such as whether the fact-finding committee can ask for arrest warrants.

Yoon changed his position because people want him to work with Lee’s party, which won big in the April 10 election and will control parliament for four more years.

In a meeting on Wednesday, Lee’s party agreed to take out parts of the proposed law that were causing disagreement.

The head of the Democratic Party, Jin Sung-joon, said the party agreed to the president and his ruling party’s requests to help the grieving families who can’t wait any longer.