The Kim regime continues to look for excuses to justify their long expected nuclear test to the international community, but I doubt anyone other than the usual suspects are going to buy it:
North Korea threatened to unleash a powerful action if the U.S. does not halt joint military drills with partners including South Korea, in what might be an effort by Kim Jong Un to lay the groundwork for his first nuclear test in five years.
“If the U.S. continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures,” the state’s foreign ministry said in a statement released on official media Tuesday. Such ministry statements are often used by the country, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to make clear the warning is coming from Kim’s regime.
The U.S. and South Korea this week started joint air drills known as Vigilant Storm that will run through Friday and involve about 240 aircraft in about 1,600 sorties to “hone their wartime capabilities,” the U.S. 7th Air Force said in a statement. The drills have added to a series of joint exercises on land, sea and air in recent weeks, some of which have also included Japan, that have led to complaints and provocations from Pyongyang.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link.
The Seoul mayor was not even in the city when the tragedy occurred, but nevertheless I would not be surprised if the political opposition demands that he resign:
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon apologized Tuesday over the Halloween crowd crush that killed at least 156 people.
“As the mayor of Seoul who is responsible for the lives and safety of citizens, I feel infinite responsibility for the accident and express my deepest apologies,” Oh said in a tearful voice during a news conference at his office.
“The Seoul city government will do its best to mobilize all its administrative power until all funeral procedures are completed and the bereaved families, the injured and all citizens who feel sorrow from this accident can return to their daily lives.”
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Investigators are not only looking into the celebrity sighting, but who started the pushing in the alley and the Yongsan district police response as well:
At the center of the claims is a suspicion raised through social media and news interviews that some people on the upper side of the sloped alley cried “push, push” and thrust other people, resulting in the deadly crush.
Allegations have also arisen that a massive crowd of people surged into the narrow alley to see a celebrity visiting the area at that time.
According to police officials, a police investigation is currently under way into those claims, although no criminally punishable acts have been identified so far.
Yonhap
There was a celebrity, K-Pop singer Lee Ji-han killed in the crush so maybe he was the celebrity that witnesses were referring to?
The article goes on to state that business owners that would not let people into their businesses to escape the crush would likely not face charges:
Nam Gu-jun, chief of the National Office of Investigation, said a 475-member special investigative team had interviewed 44 eyewitnesses as of Monday and secured 52 pieces of surveillance camera footage in 42 places around the scene to determine the exact cause of the accident.
Videos posted on social media were also being scrutinized, he said.
Some survivors have also claimed operators of stores along the alley blocked the entrances to people fleeing the crushing crowd, although experts said it would be nearly impossible to criminally punish them for “denying voluntary rescue.”
Many expect the investigation could also be directed toward police in charge of the precinct and the municipal government of Yongsan that administers the Itaewon neighborhood for failing to carry out advance accident prevention measures in negligence of their safety management duties.
You can read the rest at the link, but the Hamilton Hotel will also be investigated for expanding the wall in the alleyway that made it even narrower than it already was.
People are eager to blame someone for the Itaewon crowd crush disaster and the Korean police have become the main target:
According to police, 137 police officers were deployed in Itaewon on Saturday night. When asked whether there was enough police presence, Yoon Hee-keun, new head of the National Police Agency, said on Monday it was “difficult” to give a definite answer.
Multiple eyewitness accounts say there was little police presence to control the crowd. Viral clips on social media show people struggling to move quickly.
In a briefing on Sunday, Lee Sang min, Minister of Interior and Safety, said he understood that deploying police officers or firefighters in advance could not have “solved the problem.”
But Professor Choi Don-mook at the department of fire engineering at Gachon University told The Korea Herald there were several ways to respond to a growing crowd.
“When there are this many people, traffic must be closed off. Even if the turnout grew unexpectedly, (the authorities) could have checked CCTVs or even use drones and introduce one way traffic if necessary,” he said.
Minister Lee’s remark has also been criticized by the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, better known as Minbyun, as potentially downplaying the government’s safety management responsibility.
In a viral TikTok, Nathan Taverniti, an Australian survivor who survived the deadly crowd crush, said there was a “lack of planning police force and emergency services.”
“You know how many people were going to that event. Why were you not prepared?” he said in the clip.
Steven Belsi, the father of an American student who died in the crowd crash, told NBC News that the South Korean police should have been better prepared.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but in my opinion the simple thing that could have prevented what happened was to shutdown the Itaewon subway station. The tragedy happened just across the street from the train station. People were undoubtedly moving to and from the clubs and the train station using the narrow alley where the tragedy occurred. Closing Itaewon station may have caused less overcrowding in that area if people had to walk further to get into Itaewon from other stations.
With that all said if people really want to find who is to blame, then determine who started the initial pushing at the top of the slope that caused people to fall on top of each other in the alley.
The misinformation going around that the Yongsan police department was short handed due to providing presidential security quickly spread around the Internet after the Itaewon stampede tragedy. Now the police are trying to play catch up to get the truth out that they actually had more officers in Itaewon than past Halloween celebrations:
Halloween festivities in Itaewon have no official organizers. South Korean police said Monday they don’t have any specific procedures for handling incidents such as crowd surges during an event that has no organizers.
Police said they dispatched 137 officers to maintain order during Halloween festivities on Saturday, much more than the 34-90 officers mobilized in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before the pandemic.
Citing those figures, police dismissed as “different from the truth” speculation that a police station in the area was understaffed because it was providing extra security for Yoon, who earlier moved the presidential office to a site near Itaewon. They said police-provided security for presidents has long been handled by two special police units which have nothing to do with the Yongsan police station, whose jurisdiction includes Itaewon.
ABC News
You can read more at the link, but the misinformation being put out was clearly an attempt to politicize the tragedy and blame it on President Yoon. If it got traction then it could help set up Yoon for impeachment much like what happened to former President Park Geun-hye who got blamed for the Sewol disaster during her presidency.
