Even more police officers and other officials are being charged for not doing their jobs properly the night of the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

A total of nine police officers and government officials were additionally booked Wednesday for an investigation into the bungled response to the crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, police said.

Among those on the list are Park Sung-min, a superintendent general, and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at Yongsan Police Station, as well as four other intelligence officers, they said. 

Park is under suspicion of ordering the deletion of an internal intelligence report giving prior warnings of a possible safety accident during the Halloween period in a suspected attempt to cover up inaction. A superintendent general is the fourth-highest rank in the police.

Also on Wednesday, Song, who was in charge of the police’s 112 emergency hotline in Yongsan Ward covering the Itaewon district, was quizzed by a special investigation team earlier in the day on whether he had promptly reported the situation to Lee Im-jae, who formerly headed the station.

Lee earlier testified during a parliamentary audit that he learned of the accident at around 11 p.m., around 45 minutes after the incident first erupted, claiming the emergency hotline chief had earlier reported to him that nothing unusual was going on.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

A USFK servicemember and his wife described recently to the Stars & Stripes what it was like to be in the middle of the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

“Everybody acts like we were supposed to know that this was happening,” Riley Watts said. “Nobody knew.”

‘Like being in water’

As the crowd grew and space on the sidewalk became scarce, the Wattses were surrounded by people who were unintentionally “pushing really hard,” the couple said.

The force of so many people together “would pick me up without me even trying to move,” Riley Watts said, and his feet left the ground.

“It was kind of like being in water; it was just pushing us down the road,” he said.

Amid panicked screams in the crowd, Riley Watts saw a girl fall, he said.

“I reached down to get her and she put her hand in mine, but when I tried to pull her up, she wouldn’t budge,” he said. “And she was on the ground and when the crowd surged, it pushed her down away from me and pushed me away from her.”

Riley said he does not know what became of the girl.

“People were screaming at me, ‘Stop pushing me; I can’t breathe,’” he said. “And I was telling them, ‘It’s not me; I’m not doing it.’”

The couple soon realized that hunting for open space in the crowd was a dangerous task, according to Allyson Watts. As soon as open space materialized, people rushed so quickly into it that it became a “stumbling risk,” she said.

“If there was a sudden opening … then you risked falling over,” she said.

The Wattses eventually got off the sidewalk and onto the street because “it was the only place that was clear,” Allyson added.

“I would rather be in front of a car at that point rather than what we were up against,” Riley Watts said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I am still waiting for someone to figure out who started the reported pushing at the top of the slope that caused the disaster to happen.

This is a pretty big investment in Antarctica that the ROK government is making:

The government will build an inland research station in Antarctica by 2030, as part of a long-term plan to elevate the country’s standing in the global science and research community, the oceans ministry said Tuesday. About 277.4 billion won ($205 million) will be spent by 2027 to construct the 15,000-ton Araon 2, the latest model of the icebreaker research vessel Araon built in 2009. 

The chief priority of the first comprehensive policy assistance package is to secure greater power and influence in the global science and technology hegemonic war, marked by fierce competition over the past few decades. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This here is a perfect example of a lawmaker passing on fake news to attack the President’s wife with for political gain:

The presidential office filed a complaint with the police against main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Jang Kyung-tae for “spreading false information” about photos taken earlier this month during first lady Kim Keon-hee’s visit with a Cambodian child suffering a congenital heart disease. The presidential office complained that Jang had described the first lady’s photo shoot as a “concept shoot using at least two or three lights and other on-site studio-level equipment.”

Rep. Jang had stirred up debate over his remarks that Kim’s photo shoot amounted to “poverty porn,” or the exploitation of people in impoverished conditions to garner sympathy or support for a cause, and that it was a diplomatic discourtesy as she met the child instead of attending an official program organized at the same time for spouses of visiting world leaders. He is now under investigation by the National Assembly’s ethics committee. 

The presidential office said it filed a complaint against Jang with the police for his remarks during a Nov. 18 DPK Supreme Council member meeting and subsequent Facebook posting. (……)

During the meeting, Jang supported his claims, saying that “foreign media and photography experts analyze the photo of Kim Keon-hee as having been taken with at least two to three lights to create an on-site studio, as a concept photo shoot, rather than being a photograph taken of the natural volunteering process.” It later turned out he was citing a posting on the U.S.-based global web forum Reddit, which had since been deleted.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The fact that the pro-North Korea Minbun group is involved shows how these lawyers plan to use the Itaewon crush tragedy to politically attack the Yoon administration:

The bereaved families of some Itaewon crowd crush victims held a news conference Tuesday, calling for the punishment of those responsible for the tragic accident.

The conference was organized in southern Seoul by Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, an organization of progressive lawyers, which it says legally represents the families of 34 of 158 people killed during and after Halloween celebrations in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Oct. 29.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Minbyun for those that don’t remember has been used to legally attack North Korean defectors, one of the groups behind the US beef riots, and have long attacked the USFK relocation plan. They have recently been calling for the signing of a peace treaty to end the Korean War so US troops can be withdrawn:

You would think higher apartment buildings with more apartments in them would help with the affordable housing issues in Seoul:

Seoul’s skyline is set to rise higher as residents push to have their buildings demolished and taller buildings put in their place.  
   
A union representing owners of Sinbanpo 2-cha apartment complex in Jamwon-dong, southern Seoul, wants to raze the existing 12-story apartments and have 49-story structures built.    
   
The apartment complex, completed in 1978, is one of the oldest in Seoul. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but buildings on the Han River are currently capped at 15 floors and other buildings in Seoul are capped at 35 floors with two exceptions for the 56-story high Raemian Caelitus in Ichon-dong, Yongsan and the 47-story Seoul Forest Trimage in Seongsu-dong.