Tag: Seoul

Kim’s daughter appears again, heating up succession debate

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s daughter made a public appearance again, this time with missile scientists and more honorific titles as her father’s “most beloved” or “precious” child. She’s only about 10, but her new, bold photos are deepening the debate over whether she’s being primed as a successor.

The daughter, believed to be Kim’s second child named Ju Ae and about 9 or 10 years old, was first unveiled to the outside world last weekend in state media photos showing her observing the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch the previous day with her parents and other older officials. The daughter wearing a white puffy coat and red shoes was shown walking hand-in-hand with Kim past a huge missile loaded on a launch truck and watching a soaring weapon.

On Sunday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency mentioned her for the second time, saying she and Kim took group photos with scientists, officials and others involved in what it called the test-launch of its Hwasong-17 ICBM.

KCNA described her as Kim’s “most beloved” or “precious” child, a more honorific title than her previous description of “(Kim’s) beloved” child on its Nov. 19 dispatch. State media-released photos showed the daughter in a long, black coat holding her father’s arm as the two posed for a photo. Taking after her mother Ri Sol Ju, who wasn’t visible in any of the photos Sunday, she had a more mature appearance than in her unveiling a week ago.

Some photos showed the pair standing in the middle of a line of uniformed soldiers before a massive missile atop a launch truck. Others showed Kim’s daughter clapping her hands, exchanging handshakes with a soldier or talking to her father as people cheered in the background.

“This is certainly striking. The photograph of Kim Ju Ae standing alongside her father while being celebrated by technicians and scientists involved in the latest ICBM launch would support the idea that this is the start of her being positioned as a potential successor,” said Ankit Panda, an expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“State media underscoring her father’s love for her further underscores this, I think. Finally, both of her initial public appearances have been in the context of strategic nuclear weapons — the crown jewels of North Korea’s national defense capabilities. That doesn’t strike me as coincidental,” Panda said.

After her first public appearance, South Korea’s spy service told lawmakers that it assessed the girl pictured is Kim’s second child, who is about 10 and whose name is Ju Ae. The National Intelligence Service said her looks matched information that she is taller and bigger than other girls of the same age. It also said that her unveiling appeared to reflect Kim’s resolve to protect the security of North Korea’s future generations in the face of a standoff with the United States.

South Korean media previously speculated Kim has three children — born in 2010, 2013 and 2017 — and that the first child is a son while the third is a daughter. The unveiled daughter is highly likely the child who retired NBA star Dennis Rodman saw during his 2013 trip to Pyongyang. After that visit, Rodman told the British newspaper The Guardian that he and Kim had a “relaxing time by the sea” with the leader’s family and that he held Kim’s baby daughter, named Ju Ae.

North Korea has made no mention of Kim’s reported two other children. But speculation that his eldest child is a son has led some experts to question how a daughter can be Kim’s successor given the deeply male-dominated, patriarchal nature of North Korean society. Kim is a third-generation member of the family that has run North Korea for more than seven decades, and his father and grandfather successively governed the country before he inherited power in late 2011.

“We’ve been told that Kim has three children, including possibly a son. If this is true, and if we assume that the male child — who has yet to be revealed — will be the heir, is Ju Ae truly Kim’s most ‘precious,’ from a succession standpoint?” said Soo Kim, a security analyst at the California-based RAND Corporation. “I think it is too early to draw any conclusions.”

She said that Kim Jong Un may think his daughter’s unveiling is an effective distraction while conditioning Washington, Seoul and others to living with the North Korean nuclear threat as “the spectacle of Ju Ae appears to eclipse the intensifying gravity of North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.” She added that by parading his daughter around, Kim Jong Un may also want to tell his people that nuclear weapons are the sole guarantor for the country’s future.

In remarks at the group photo session, Kim Jong Un called the recently tested Hwasong-17 “a great entity of strategic strength” and ordered officials to further build the country’s military capability to a “more absolute and irreversible one.” The launch of the Hwasong-17 weapon designed to strike the U.S. mainland was part of a barrage of missile tests that it says were meant to issue a warning over U.S.-South Korean military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.

“Kim may be signaling to other North Korean elites that he is mentoring his daughter for a role in the leadership,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.

“Giving her such an early and public start is unusual but reflects the historical and political significance Kim attaches to a nuclear missile that can reach the United States,” he added.

Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said that Kim Jong Un cannot make his son his successor if he thinks he lacks leadership. Cheong said Kim may be preventing potential pushback for choosing a daughter as a fourth-generation leader, so he likely brought her to a successful ICBM launch event to help public loyalty toward him be carried on smoothly to his daughter.

“When a king has many children, it’s natural for him to make his most beloved child as his successor,” Cheong said. “Kim Ju Ae is expected to appear occasionally at Kim Jong Un’s public events and take a succession training.”

Revealing the young Ju Ae came as a huge surprise to foreign experts, as Kim Jong Un and his father Kim Jong Il were both first mentioned in state media dispatches after they became adults. Cheong, however, said Kim Jong Il had Kim Jong Un in mind as his heir when his son was 8 years old. Cheong cited his conversations with Kim Jong Un’s aunt and her husband, who defected to the United States.

The fact that the South Korean spy agency said Ju Ae is about 10 years old despite reportedly being born in 2013 could be related to the country’s age-calculating system that typically makes people’s ages one or two years older.

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November 26, 2022
South Korea in demographic crisis as many stop having babies

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Yoo Young Yi’s grandmother gave birth to six children. Her mother birthed two. Yoo doesn’t want any.

“My husband and I like babies so much … but there are things that we’d have to sacrifice if we raised kids,” said Yoo, a 30-year-old Seoul financial company employee. “So it’s become a matter of choice between two things, and we’ve agreed to focus more on ourselves.”

There are many like Yoo in South Korea who have chosen either not to have children or not to marry. Other advanced countries have similar trends, but South Korea’s demographic crisis is much worse.

South Korea’s statistics agency announced in September that the total fertility rate — the average number of babies born to each woman in their reproductive years — was 0.81 last year. That’s the world’s lowest for the third consecutive year.

The population shrank for the first time in 2021, stoking worry that a declining population could severely damage the economy — the world’s 10th largest — because of labor shortages and greater welfare spending as the number of older people increases and the number of taxpayers shrinks.

President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered policymakers to find more effective steps to deal with the problem. The fertility rate, he said, is plunging even though South Korea spent 280 trillion won ($210 billion) over the past 16 years to try to turn the tide.

Many young South Koreans say that, unlike their parents and grandparents, they don’t feel an obligation to have a family. They cite the uncertainty of a bleak job market, expensive housing, gender and social inequality, low levels of social mobility and the huge expense of raising children in a brutally competitive society. Women also complain of a persistent patriarchal culture that forces them to do much of the childcare while enduring discrimination at work.

“In a nutshell, people think our country isn’t an easy place to live,” said Lee So-Young, a population policy expert at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs. “They believe their children can’t have better lives than them, and so question why they should bother to have babies.”

Many people who fail to enter good schools and land decent jobs feel they’ve become “dropouts” who “cannot be happy” even if they marry and have kids because South Korea lacks advanced social safety nets, said Choi Yoon Kyung, an expert at the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education. She said South Korea failed to establish such welfare programs during its explosive economic growth in the 1960 to ’80s.

Yoo, the Seoul financial worker, said that until she went to college, she strongly wanted a baby. But she changed her mind when she saw female office colleagues calling their kids from the company toilet to check on them or leaving early when their children were sick. She said her male coworkers didn’t have to do this.

“After seeing this, I realized my concentration at work would be greatly diminished if I had babies,” Yoo said.

Her 34-year-old husband, Jo Jun Hwi, said he doesn’t think having kids is necessary. An interpreter at an information technology company, Jo said he wants to enjoy his life after years of exhaustive job-hunting that made him “feel like I was standing on the edge of a cliff.”

There are no official figures on how many South Koreans have chosen not to marry or have kids. But records from the national statistics agency show there were about 193,000 marriages in South Korea last year, down from a peak of 430,000 in 1996. The agency data also show about 260,600 babies were born in South Korea last year, down from 691,200 in 1996, and a peak of 1 million in 1971. The recent figures were the lowest since the statistics agency began compiling such data in 1970.

Kang Han Byeol, a 33-year-old graphic designer who’s decided to remain single, believes South Korea isn’t a sound place to raise children. She cited frustration with gender inequalities, widespread digital sex crimes targeting women such as spy cams hidden in public restrooms, and a culture that ignores those pushing for social justice.

“I can consider marriage when our society becomes healthier and gives more equal status to both women and men,” Kang said.

Kang’s 26-year-old roommate Ha Hyunji also decided to stay single after her married female friends advised her not to marry because most of the housework and child care falls to them. Ha worries about the huge amount of money she would spend for any future children’s private tutoring to prevent them from falling behind in an education-obsessed nation.

“I can have a fun life without marriage and enjoy my life with my friends,” said Ha, who runs a cocktail bar in Seoul.

Until the mid-1990s, South Korea maintained birth control programs, which were initially launched to slow the country’s post-war population explosion. The nation distributed contraceptive pills and condoms for free at public medical centers and offered exemptions on military reserve training for men if they had a vasectomy.

United Nations figures show a South Korean woman on average gave birth to about four to six children in the 1950s and ’60s, three to four in the 1970s, and less than two in the mid-1980s.

South Korea has been offering a variety of incentives and other support programs for those who give birth to many children. But Choi, the expert, said the fertility rate has been falling too fast to see any tangible effects. During a government task force meeting last month, officials said they would soon formulate comprehensive measures to cope with demographic challenges.

South Korean society still frowns on those who remain childfree or single.

In 2021 when Yoo and Jo posted their decision to live without children on their YouTube channel, “You Young You Young,” some posted messages calling them “selfish” and asking them to pay more taxes. The messages also called Jo “sterile” and accused Yoo of “gaslighting” her husband.

Lee Sung-jai, a 75-year-old Seoul resident, said it’s “the order of nature” for humankind to marry and give birth to children.

“These days, I see some (unmarried) young women walking with dogs in strollers and saying they are their moms. Did they give birth to those dogs? They are really crazy,” he said.

Seo Ji Seong, 38, said that she’s often called a patriot by older people for having many babies, though she didn’t give birth to them for the national interest. She’s expecting a fifth baby in January.

Seo’s family recently moved to a rent-free apartment in the city of Anyang, which was jointly provided by the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corporation and the city for families with at least four children. Seo and her husband, Kim Dong Uk, 33, receive other state support, though it’s still tough economically to raise four kids.

Kim said he enjoys seeing each of his children growing up with different personalities and talents, while Seo feels their kids’ social skills are helped while playing and competing with one another at home.

“They are all so cute. That’s why I’ve kept giving birth to babies even though it’s difficult,” Seo said.

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November 26, 2022
UN expert questions sincerity of Myanmar’s prisoner release

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SEOUL, South Korea — The recent release of thousands of prisoners in Myanmar is likely an attempt by its military-controlled government to “create a veneer of progress” in the country to sway international opinion, a U.N. expert said Monday.

Myanmar freed about 5,700 prisoners on the occasion of the National Victory Day last Thursday. Among them were foreign nationals — an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American. Australia, the United States and rights groups welcomed the releases while calling for Myanmar to free others unjustly detained.

“I of course welcome this release, but I caution that this is part of the junta’s efforts to create a veneer of progress in Myanmar to sway international opinion,” Thomas Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, told a news conference in Seoul. “The international community must not applaud the junta for this release or take it as evidence that the junta is softening.”

He said he received reports that some were immediately arrested again and that within 24 hours of last week’s release the military rained down heavy artillery on a village in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, killing at least 10 people.

According to a rights monitoring organization, about 16,230 people have been detained on political charges in Myanmar since the military took over after overthrowing Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in February 2021.

Andrews spoke at the end of his six-day trip to Seoul, where he said he discussed with South Korean officials their steps against the Myanmar government to ensure South Korean business activities don’t benefit the military. Andrews also met with Myanmar nationals living in South Korea.

He said that the world needs to rethink and recalibrate its response to a crisis in Myanmar, which he said “hit a dangerous inflection point.” He urged South Korea to build on the positive steps it has taken including publicly denouncing the military takeover, imposing an arms embargo and a moratorium on forced returns of Myanmar nationals back to their country.

“Korea should forcefully discredit any claims that the junta’s planned elections are legitimate, impose economic sanctions on targets associated with the junta, and expand its humane treatment of those Myanmar nations residing in Korea while encouraging Myanmar’s neighbors to do the same,” he told reporters.

“Strong, strategic and coordinated action in support of the people of Myanmar, including through cutting off the junta’s access to revenues and weapons, can make a critical difference,” he said.

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November 21, 2022
NKorea fires suspected long-range missile designed to hit US

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a suspected long-range missile designed to strike the mainland U.S. on Friday, its neighbors said, a day after the North resumed its testing activities in an apparent protest over U.S. moves to solidify its alliances with South Korea and Japan.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected a ballistic missile launch off the North’s eastern coast on Friday morning. It later said the missile launched is likely an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Japanese Defense Ministry also said in a statement that North Korea fired an ICBM-class ballistic missile from its western coastal area that flew toward its eastern waters across the country. It said the missile, launched at around 10:14 a.m. (0114GMT) was still in flight and may land inside of the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone.

If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first ICBM launch in about two weeks. Outside experts said that an ICBM launched by North Korea on Nov. 3 failed to fly its intended flight.

The Nov. 3 test was believed to have involved a new type of developmental ICBM. North Korea has two other types of ICBM — Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 and their test-launches in 2017 proved they could potentially reach parts of the U.S. homeland.

South Korea’s presidential office said it convened an emergency security meeting to discuss the North Korean launch.

“North Korea has been repeatedly firing missiles this year at an unprecedented frequency and is significantly escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamad told reporters.

The launch is the latest in a slew of missile tests by North Korea in recent weeks. But the country had halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday.

Before Thursday’s launch, the North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

Choe was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

The North has argued a U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward the country. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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November 17, 2022
US, Japan, SKorea vow unified response to North Korea threat

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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Sunday vowed a unified, coordinated response to North Korea’s threatening nuclear and ballistic missile programs, with Biden declaring that the three-way partnership is “even more important than it’s ever been” when North Korea is stepping up its provocations.

Biden met separately with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol before all three sat down together on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.

The U.S. president began by offering condolences for a crowd surge during Halloween festivities in Seoul that killed more than 150 people, saying the U.S. had grieved with South Korea. The meeting was heavily focused on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s recent escalations, although Biden said the three leaders would also discuss strengthening supply chains and preserving peace across the Taiwan strait, while building on the countries’ support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Biden had also planned to seek input from Kishida and Yoon on managing China’s assertive posture in the Pacific region on the eve of his face-to-face with President Xi Jinping.

“We face real challenges, but our countries are more aligned than ever, more prepared to take on those challenges than ever,” Biden said. “So I look forward to deepening the bonds of cooperation between our three countries.”

Both Yoon and Kishida discussed the ongoing displays of aggression by North Korea, which has fired dozens of missiles in recent weeks. The launches include an intercontinental ballistic missile 10 days ago that triggered evacuation alerts in northern Japan, as the allies warn of a looming risk of the isolated country conducting its seventh nuclear test in the coming weeks.

Referring to the crowd surge that occurred in the Itaewon neighborhood in Seoul, Yoon said, through an interpreter: “At a time when South Koreans are grieving in deep sorrow, North Korea pushed ahead with such provocations which lays bare the Kim Jong Un regime’s true inclinations.”

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Saturday that Biden would use the meetings to strengthen the three countries’ joint response to the dangers posed by North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“What we would really like to see is enhanced trilateral security cooperation where the three countries are all coming together,” he said. “That’s acutely true with respect to the DPRK because of the common threat and challenge we all face, but it’s also true, more broadly, about our capacity to work together to enhance overall peace and stability in the region.”

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have skyrocketed in recent months as the North continues its weapons demonstrations and the U.S. and South Korea held stepped-up joint defense exercises. Earlier this month, the South Korean military said two B-1B bombers trained with four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35 jets during the last day of “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills. It was the first time since December 2017 that the bombers were deployed to the Korean Peninsula. The exercise involved a total of roughly 240 warplanes, including advanced F-35 fighter jets from both countries.

North Korea responded with its own display of force, flying large numbers of warplanes inside its territory.

The Biden administration has said it has sent repeated requests to negotiate with North Korea without preconditions on constraining its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but that Kim Jong Un’s government has not responded.

Biden has said he plans to press Xi to use China’s sway over North Korea to curtail its aggressive behavior, as part of what is expected to be a wide-ranging meeting between the leaders on the margins of the Group of 20 gathering in Bali, Indonesia.

China “has an interest in playing a constructive role in restraining North Korea’s worst tendencies,” Sullivan said Saturday. “Whether they choose to do so or not is, of course, up to them.”

Biden told reporters on Sunday that he’s “always had straightforward discussions” with Xi, and that has prevented either of them from “miscalculations” of their intentions. Their meeting comes weeks after Xi cemented his grip on China’s political system with the conclusion of the Community Party congress in Beijing that gave him a norm-breaking third term as leader.

“His circumstances changed, to state the obvious, at home,” Biden said of Xi. Biden maintained that his own have as well, saying that after Democrats retained control of the Senate in the midterm elections, “I know I’m coming in stronger.”

Underscoring that point, several heads of state approached Biden in Cambodia to tell him they had followed the U.S. midterm campaigns closely, telling the president that the results were a testament to the strength of American democracy, Sullivan told reporters traveling on Air Force One to Indonesia on Sunday evening.

Monday’s meeting will be the first in-person sit-down between the leaders since Biden was elected. U.S. officials have expressed frustration that lower-level Chinese officials have proven unable or unwilling to speak for Xi, and are hoping the face-to-face summit will enable progress on areas of mutual concern — and, even more critically, a shared understanding of each others’ limitations.

“I know him well, he knows me,” Biden said. “We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us, going into the next two years.”

As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to task for human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities, Beijing’s crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong, coercive trade practices, military provocations against self-ruled Taiwan and differences over Russia’s prosecution of its war against Ukraine.

Xi’s government has criticized the Biden administration’s posture toward Taiwan — which Beijing looks eventually to unify with the communist mainland — as undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese president also has suggested that Washington wants to stifle Beijing’s growing clout as it tries to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy.

Biden also spoke briefly with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has sought out his own meeting with Xi this week in an effort to ease Chinese sanctions against his country.

—-

Kim reported from Nusa Dua, Indonesia. Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Baltimore and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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November 13, 2022
S Korea, Japan seek better ties amid NKorea missile tensions

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SEOUL, South Korea — The leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed Sunday to keep up efforts to resolve their thorny historical disputes as they’re pushing to bolster security cooperation with the United States to better deal with North Korean nuclear threats.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met twice on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia — with U.S. President Joe Biden and then bilaterally.

In the bilateral meeting, Yoon and Kishida assessed that there has been active communications between their diplomats on “a current issue between the two countries” and agreed to continue consultations to find an early resolution, Yoon’s office said in a statement.

It said the two leaders also agreed to continue their communications.

The statement didn’t elaborate what the issue was, but it apparently referred to a long-running spat over 2018 court rulings in Seoul that ordered two Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who had been mobilized as forced laborers during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

The ruling plunged bilateral ties to their lowest point in decades, as the companies and the Japanese government argued that all compensation issues had already been settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized the countries’ relations and refused to comply with the verdicts. The countries later downgraded each other’s trade status and Seoul threatened to abandon an intelligence-sharing deal.

The South Korea-Japan wrangling has complicated U.S. efforts to reinforce a trilateral security alliance with its Asian allies in the face of an increasingly assertive China and an advancing North Korean nuclear program.

South Korean and Japan have been seeking to find ways to resolve the disputes since the May inauguration of Yoon, a conservative who wants to bolter Seoul’s military alliance with the U.S. and improve ties with Japan. Some experts say North Korea’s provocative run of missile tests in recent months has also helped bring Seoul and Tokyo closer together as both are placed within the striking distance of North Korean missiles and feel the need to buttress a security cooperation with the United States.

In their bilateral summit Sunday, Yoon and Kishida renewed their condemnation of the North Korean missile tests that they called “a serious, grave provocation” that undermined regional and international peace. In talks with Biden, the three leaders said in a joint statement that they will work together to strengthen deterrence and ensure all relevant sanctions on North Korea are full enforced. Biden also reiterated that the U.S. commitment to defend Japan and South Korea is “ironclad” and backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear.

In September, Yoon and Kishida held their first talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and agreed to accelerate efforts to mend their countries’ ties. That meeting was the first summit between the countries since December 2019.

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November 13, 2022
Police inspector being investigated over Seoul’s Halloween crush found dead | CNN

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Seoul
CNN
—

A senior South Korean police inspector who was being investigated in connection with the deadly Halloween crowd crush in Seoul has been found dead in his home.

The inspector was found lifeless by his family at around 12:45pm on Friday, according to South Korean police.

The police said they are investigating the circumstances.

The news comes after investigators raided the offices of the Yongsan district police station, which oversees the nightlife neighborhood of Itaewon, where the crush took place.

In what was one of the country’s worst disasters, 156 people died after tens of thousands of costumed partygoers celebrating Halloween poured into the popular nightlife district, many of them becoming trapped as the narrow streets clogged up.

Public anger over the disaster has mounted since it emerged that hours before the tragedy members of the public had phoned the police to warn of overcrowding problems.

Korean authorities have also come under fire after witnesses said there were little to no crowd control measures in place in Itaewon on the night of the crush – despite police receiving warnings far in advance.

Last week, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said investigators raided eight of its offices and seized documents relating to reports made by members of the public to the 112 emergency hotline.

The raids were carried out by a special investigative unit created by the National Police Agency (NPA) to look into the disaster. The NPA said last week it had suspended the chief of the Yongsan police station, one of the police stations closest to the crush site.

Records given to CNN by the NPA show police received at least 11 calls from people in Itaewon concerned about the possibility of a crowd crush as early as four hours before the incident occurred.

The first call came at 6:34 p.m., when a caller warned, “It looks really dangerous … I fear people might get crushed.”

Another caller less than two hours later said there were so many people packed into Itaewon’s narrow alleys that they kept falling over and getting hurt.

Speaking to the media last week, NPA chief Yoon Hee-keun admitted for the first time that police had made mistakes in their response.

He added that the police response to the emergency calls had been “inadequate,” and that he felt a “heavy responsibility” as the agency head.

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November 11, 2022
Families of Halloween crush victims identify lost items as South Korean police admit mistakes | CNN

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Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

ln a cavernous Seoul gymnasium Tuesday, grieving families inspected neat rows of belongings left behind at the scene of the deadly street crush in Itaewon.

Shoes, bags, glasses, notebooks, wallets, cardholders and colorful hats were laid out on makeshift tables and exercise mats along the polished floor – waiting to be claimed by the next of kin of 156 victims killed in Saturday night’s crowd surge.

“Found it. I think this is the one,” said one woman, as she recognized a black coat, hugging it as she cried.

The middle-aged woman, who had arrived with her husband, collapsed to the floor in tears after discovering a missing pair of knee-high boots. It was among rows of black boots, stilettos and sneakers. In many cases, there was just one shoe.

Another younger woman, wearing a cast on her left arm, walked into the gymnasium to find her lost shoe. This woman, who didn’t want to be named, said she was in front of a bar in the alley when the crush happened.

Stuck in the crowd, she said she passed out from asphyxiation “to the point I thought I was dead, but a foreigner shouted at me to wake up.” Her arm was badly bruised during the incident, and after she came to, the woman said she just held on until the crowd eased and she could be rescued.

Family members walked into the gymnasium, one by one and in small groups, escorted by officials who hurriedly put on white gloves and showed them to the tables, so they could inspect and claim the carefully arranged possessions.

South Korea is in deep mourning for the 156 people killed, including 26 foreigners, in the crowd crush on Saturday night when as many as 100,000 people crammed into the narrow streets of Itaewon to celebrate Halloween.

Officials expected large numbers due to the popularity of the area for Halloween parties in pre-Covid years, but police have admitted they were unprepared for this year’s crowd.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Yoon Hee-keun, head of National Police Agency, bowed deeply as he began a press conference, admitting for the first time failings on the behalf of the police in the capital that night.

Yoon said officers failed to adequately respond to the emergency calls that flooded into the police call center before the disaster.

“The calls were about emergencies telling the danger and urgency of the situation that large crowds had gathered before the accident occurred,” Yoon said. “However, we think the police response to the 112 (emergency telephone number) calls was inadequate.”

South Korean police received at least 11 calls from people in Itaewon about concerns of a possible crush as early as four hours before the incident occurred on Saturday night, records given to CNN by the National Police Agency show.

The first call was made at 6:34 p.m. Saturday from a location near the Hamilton Hotel, which borders the alley where the deadly surge occurred, the records show.

“People are going up and down the alley now, but it looks really dangerous. People can’t come down but people keep coming up (the alleyway), so I fear people might be crushed,” one caller said, according to the record.

“I managed to get out, but it’s too crowded. I think you need to control this. Nobody is controlling (the crowd). I think police officers should be standing here and moving some people so that others can go through the alleyway. People cannot even go through but there are more people pouring down,” the caller added.

Then at 8:09 p.m., another person in Itaewon reported that there were so many people in the area that they were falling over and getting hurt. The caller asked for traffic control, the record shows.

The deadly crowd surge took place just after 10 p.m.

On Monday, Oh Seung-jin, director of the agency’s violent crime investigation division, said about 137 personnel had been deployed to Itaewon that night, compared to about 30 to 90 personnel in previous years before the pandemic.

“For this time’s Halloween festival, because it was expected that many people would gather in Itaewon, I understand that it was prepared by putting in more police force than other years,” said Oh.

However, police at the scene were tasked with cracking down on illegal activity such as drug taking and sexual abuse in the area “rather than on site control,” Oh said.

On Tuesday, South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said a “lack of institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management” was partly to blame for the crowd crush.

“One of the reasons was a lack of deep institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management. However, the police are investigating,” Han said.

“Even if more police were put in (to the site), there seems to have been a limit in the situation as we don’t have a crowd management system, but we’ll need to wait for the police investigation to find out the cause,” he added.

CNN reporter returns to Itaewon’s narrow alley one day after the Halloween disaster. See what’s it like

At a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, President Yoon Suk Yeol urged the need to establish systems to prevent similar tragedies.

“In addition to side streets where this time’s large disaster happened, (we) need to establish safety measures at stadiums, performance venues and etc. where crowds gather,” he said, adding that the government will hold a national safety system inspection meeting with relevant ministers and experts soon.

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November 1, 2022
2 Koreas exchange missile tests near tense sea border

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SEOUL, South Korea — Air raid sirens sounded on a South Korean island and residents there evacuated to underground shelters after North Korea fired about a dozen missiles in its direction Wednesday, at least one of them landing near the rivals’ tense sea border. South Korea quickly responded by performing its own missile tests at the same border area.

The launches came hours after North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history” as it intensified its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing South Korean-U.S. military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal.

They also came a few hours after The White House pushed back against North Korea’s saber rattling, reiterating that the drills are part of a routine training schedule with South Korea.

“We reject the notion that they serve as any sort of provocation. We have made clear that we have no hostile intent towards (North Korea) and call on them to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said late Tuesday.

North Korea “continues to not respond. At the same time, we will continue to work closely with our allies and partners to limit the North’s ability to advance its unlawful weapons programs and threaten regional stability,” Watson said.

The North’s barrage of missile tests also came as world attention was focused on South Korea following a weekend Halloween tragedy that saw more than 150 people killed in a crowd surge in Seoul in what was the country’s largest disaster in years.

South Korea’s military said North Korea launched more than 10 missiles of various kinds off its eastern and western coasts on Wednesday.

One of the missiles — a ballistic weapon — was flying toward South Korea’s Ulleung island before it eventually landed 167 kilometers (104 miles) northwest of the island. South Korea’s military subsequently issued an air raid alert on the island, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korean media published photos showing island residents moving to underground shelters.

Hours later on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said it lifted the air raid alert on the island.

That missile landed 26 kilometers (16 miles) away from the rivals’ sea border. The landing site is in international waters but far south of the extension of the nations’ sea border. South Korea’s military said it was the first time a North Korean missile had landed so close to the sea border since the countries’ division in 1948.

“This is very unprecedented and we will never tolerate it,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a separate statement.

In 2010, North Korea shelled a frontline South Korean island off the peninsula’s western coast, killing four people. But the weapons used were artillery rockets, not ballistic missiles whose launches or tests are banned by multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Later Wednesday, South Korean fighter jets launched three air-to-surface, precision-guided missiles near the eastern sea border to show its determination to get tough on North Korean provocations. South Korea’s military said the missiles landed in international waters at the same distance of 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of the extension of the sea border as the North Korean missile fell earlier Wednesday.

It said it maintains a readiness to win “an overwhelming victory” against North Korea in potential clashes.

“North Korea firing missiles in a way that sets off air raid sirens appears intended to threaten South Koreans to pressure their government to change policy,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “North Korea’s expanding military capabilities and tests are worrisome, but offering concessions about alliance cooperation or nuclear recognition would make matters worse.”

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier identified three of the North Korean weapons launched as “short-range ballistic missiles” fired from the North’s eastern coastal town of Wonsan, including the one that landed near the sea border.

North Korean short-range weapons are designed to strike key facilities in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there.

In an emergency meeting with top security officials, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered officials to take swift unspecified steps to make North Korea face consequences for its provocation. He said he would consider the North Korean missile’s landing near the border “a virtual violation of (our) territorial waters.”

During the emergency South Korean meeting, “participants lamented the provocations committed during our national mourning period and pointed out that this clearly showed the nature of the North Korean government,” according to South Korea’s presidential office.

Earlier Wednesday, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters that at least two ballistic missiles fired by North Korea showed a possibly “irregular” trajectory. This suggests the missiles are the North’s highly maneuverable, nuclear-capable KN-23 missile, which was modeled on Russia’s Iskander missile.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called North Korea’s continuing missile tests “absolutely impermissible.”

Analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea said that the danger of armed clashes between the Koreas off their western or eastern coasts is increasing. He said South Korea needs to make “proportional responses” to North Korean provocations, not “overwhelming responses,” to prevent tensions from spiraling out of control and possibly leading the North to use its tactical nuclear weapons.

Animosities on the Korean Peninsula have been running high in recent months, with North Korea testing a string of nuclear-capable missiles and adopting a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a broad range of situations. Some experts still doubt North Korea would use nuclear weapons first in the face of U.S. and South Korean forces.

North Korea has argued its recent weapons tests were meant to issue a warning to Washington and Seoul over their series of joint military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal, including this week’s exercises involving about 240 warplanes.

In a statement released early Wednesday, Pak Jong Chon, a secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party who is considered a close confidant of leader Kim Jong Un, called the so-called Vigilant Storm air force drills “aggressive and provocative.”

“If the U.S. and South Korea attempt to use armed forces against (North Korea) without any fear, the special means of the (North’s) armed forces will carry out their strategic mission without delay,” Pak said, in an apparent reference to his country’s nuclear weapons.

“The U.S. and South Korea will have to face a terrible case and pay the most horrible price in history,” he said.

U.S. and South Korean officials have steadfastly said their drills are defensive in nature and that they have no intentions of attacking North Korea.

———

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Aamer Madhani in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.

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November 1, 2022
S. Korea police admit responsibility for Halloween tragedy

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s police chief admitted “a heavy responsibility” for failing to prevent a recent crowd surge that killed more than 150 people during Halloween festivities in Seoul, saying Tuesday that officers didn’t effectively handle earlier emergency calls about the impending disaster.

The admission came as the South Korean government faces growing public scrutiny over whether the crowd surge Saturday night in Seoul’s Itaewon district, a popular nightlife neighborhood, could have been prevented and who should take the responsibility for the country’s worst disaster in years.

“I feel a heavy responsibility (for the disaster) as the head of one of related government offices,” Yoon Hee Keun, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, told a televised news conference. “Police will do their best to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.”

Yoon said an initial investigation has found that there were many urgent calls by citizens notifying authorities about the potential danger of a crowd gathering in Itaewon, but officers who had received those calls didn’t respond to them in a satisfactory manner.

Yoon said police have subsequently launched an intense internal probe to look deeper into the officers’ handling of the emergency calls and other issues like their on-the-spot response to the crowd surge in Itaewon at that night.

The disaster — which left at least 156 people dead and 151 others injured — was concentrated in a downhill, narrow alley in Itaewon. Witnesses described people falling on one another, suffering severe breathing difficulties and falling unconscious. They also recalled rescuers and ambulances failed to reach the crammed alleys in time because the entire Itaewon area was extremely packed with slow-moving vehicles and a crowd of partygoers clad in Halloween costumes.

During a Cabinet council meeting Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol also acknowledged that South Korea lacks research on a crowd management. He called for using drones and other high-tech resources to develop an effective crowd control capability. He said the government will soon hold a meeting with experts to review overall national safety rules.

The crowd surge is South Korea’s deadliest disaster since the 2014 ferry sinking that killed 304 people and exposed the country’s lax safety rules and regulatory failures. Saturday’s crowd surge has subsequently raised public questions about what South Korea has done to prevent human-made disasters.

After the Itaewon disaster, police launched a 475-member task force to find its cause.

Senior police officer Nam Gu-Jun told reporters Monday that officers have obtained videos taken by about 50 security cameras in the area and were analyzing video clips posted on social media. Nam said police have also interviewed more than 40 witnesses and survivors so far.

Police said they had sent 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. But some observers questioned whether the 137 officers were enough to handle the estimated 100,00 people gathered Saturday in Itaewon.

Adding more questions about the role of police was the fact that they sent 7,000 officers to another part of Seoul earlier Saturday to monitor dueling protests involving tens of thousands of people. Police also acknowledged that the 137 officers dispatched to Itaewon were primarily assigned to monitor crime, with a particular focus on narcotics use — not the crowd control.

The death toll could rise as officials said that 29 of the injured were in serious condition. The dead included some 26 foreign nationals from Iran, China, Russia, the United States, Japan and elsewhere.

President Yoon asked officials to provide the same government support to the bereaved families of the foreign victims as to South Korean dead and injured people. He also thanked many world leaders for sending condolence messages over the disaster.

The Itaewon area, known for its expat-friendly, cosmopolitan atmosphere, is the country’s hottest spot for Halloween-themed events and parties, with young South Koreans taking part in costume competitions at bars, clubs and restaurants. Saturday’s gathering of the estimated 100,000 people in Itaewon was the biggest Halloween celebration in the area since the pandemic began.

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.

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October 31, 2022
North Korea warns US of ‘powerful’ response to allied drills

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized the United States for expanding joint military exercises with South Korea that it claims are practice for a potential invasion, and it warned Tuesday of “more powerful follow-up measures” in response.

The statement from the ministry came as the U.S. and South Korea conduct aerial drills involving more than 200 warplanes, including their advanced F-35 fighter jets, as they step up their defense posture in the face of North Korea’s increased weapons testing and growing nuclear threat.

North Korea has ramped up its weapons demonstrations to a record pace this year, launching more than 40 ballistic missiles, including developmental intercontinental ballistic missiles and an intermediate-range missile fired over Japan. The North has punctuated those tests with an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes preemptive nuclear attacks in loosely defined crisis situations.

The U.S. and South Korea have resumed large-scale military drills this year after downsizing or suspending them in past years as part of efforts to create diplomatic space with Pyongyang and because of the pandemic.

The United States and South Korea’s “Vigilant Storm” air force drills, which are to continue through Friday, came after South Korea completed its annual 12-day “Hoguk” field exercises that officials say also involved an unspecified number of American troops.

North Korea’s latest statement came just days after the country fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, extending a barrage of launches since late September. Some of those launches have been described by the North as simulated nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets.

North Korea has said its testing activities are meant as a warning amid the joint military drills. But some experts say Pyongyang has also used the drills as a chance to test new weapons systems, boost its nuclear capability and increase its leverage in future dealings with Washington and Seoul.

In comments attributed to an unidentified spokesperson, the North Korean Foreign Ministry statement said the military drills exposed the United States as the “chief culprit in destroying peace and security.” It said the North was ready to take “all necessary measures” to defend against outside military threats.

“If the U.S. continuously persists in the grave military provocations, the DPRK will take into account more powerful follow-up measures,” the spokesperson said, using North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. The statement did not specify what those measures could be.

South Korean officials have said North Korea could up the ante in coming weeks by detonating its first nuclear test device since September 2017, which could possibly take the country a step closer to its goals of building a full-fledged nuclear arsenal capable of threatening regional U.S. allies and the American mainland.

In recent weeks, North Korea has also fired hundreds of shells in inter-Korean maritime buffer zones that the two Koreas established in 2018 to reduce frontline military tensions. North Korea has said that firing was in reaction to South Korean live-fire exercises at land border areas. The rival Koreas exchanged warning shots Oct. 24 along their disputed western sea boundary, a scene of past bloodshed and naval battles, as they accused each other of violating the boundary.

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October 31, 2022
Witnesses describe ‘a hell’ inside South Korean crowd surge

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SEOUL, South Korea — In one moment, thousands of Halloween revelers crammed into the narrow, vibrant streets of Seoul’s most cosmopolitan neighborhood, eager to show off their capes, wizard hats and bat wings.

In the next, a surge of panic spread as an unmanageable mass of people jammed into a narrow alley in Itaewon. Toppled revelers were trapped for as long as 40 minutes, stacked on one another “like dominoes” in a chaotic crush so intense that clothes were ripped off.

A stunned Seoul was just beginning on Monday to put together the huge scope of the crowd surge on Saturday night that killed at least 153, mostly people in their 20s and 30s, including foreign nationals. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it expected more deaths because there were more than 130 injured, many in serious condition.

Witnesses described a nightmarish scene as people performed CPR on the dying and carried limp bodies to ambulances, while dance music pulsed from garish clubs lit in bright neon. Others tried desperately to pull out those trapped at the bottom of the crush of people, but often failed because there were too many of the fallen on top of them.

“We were just stuck together so tightly we couldn’t even shift to call out and report the situation,” said one survivor, surnamed Lee. “We were strangers, but we held each others’ hands and repeatedly shouted out, ‘Let’s survive!’”

Kim Mi Sung, who works for a non-profit organization in Itaewon, told The Associated Press that nine out of the 10 people she gave CPR to eventually died. Many were bleeding from their noses and mouths. Most were women who dressed as witches or were in other Halloween costumes; two were foreigners.

“It was like a hell,” Kim said. “I still can’t believe what happened.”

In this ultra-wired, high-tech country, anguish, terror and grief — as well as many of the details of what happened — are playing out most vividly on social media. Users posted messages desperately seeking friends and loved ones, as witnesses and survivors described what they went through.

“I thought I was dying,” one woman said in posts on Twitter. “My entire body was stuck among everyone else, while people laughed from a terrace and videotaped us. I thought I would really die if I cried out. I stretched my hands out to (others) who were above me and I managed to get out.”

An unidentified woman in her 20s wept as she described the scene to the Yonhap news agency: “It looked like the graves of people piled upon one another. Some of them were slowly losing consciousness and others seemed to have already died.”

A man, surnamed Kong, said he managed to escape to a nearby bar with his friends after the crush happened. He saw through the bar windows that people were falling on top of each other “like dominoes,” Yonhap reported.

When a 27-year-old office worker who gave only his surname, Choi, left the bar he’d been in during the crush, he saw dozens of police and paramedics. “It kind of looked like a war zone,” he said.

The bodies of 10 to 15 people were lined up in front of the King Kebab restaurant on the asphalt and were being covered up with blue tarps as he walked by.

“It looked like they were sleeping — eyes closed, mouth opened. They looked like mannequins,” Choi said.

Friends and family members gathered at a local government office to try to find news about the missing.

One Twitter user posted a series of messages asking for information about a 17-year-old friend who had gone to Itaewon to celebrate wearing a hairband that looked like cat ears.

“I lost contact with her. She’s been a friend of mine for 12 years, and we were like family. Please help me,” the message said.

Even after the crush, witnesses said they saw some revelers not immediately making way for emergency vehicles, rescuers and police officers. One viral video clip on Twitter showing a crowd of young people dancing and singing near the carnage drew several insults from South Koreans.

Ken Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, watched stunned as a dozen or more unconscious partygoers were carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters.

Fallas said police and emergency workers pleaded with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of injured.

“I saw a lot of (young) people laughing, but I don’t think they were (really) laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”

———

AP journalists Juwon Park in Seoul, South Korea, and Jee-won Jeong and Kiko Rosario in Bangkok contributed to this story.

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October 30, 2022
Witness recalls harrowing moment of Seoul crowd surge

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SEOUL, South Korea — As he watched a dozen or more unconscious partygoers carried out from a narrow backstreet packed with youngsters dressed like movie characters, an overwhelmed Ken Fallas couldn’t process what was happening.

Fallas, a Costa Rican architect who has worked in Seoul for the past eight years, said Saturday’s Halloween festivities at the city’s nightlife district of Itaewon were a long-awaited occasion to hang out with fellow expats following years of COVID-19 restrictions

Instead, the 32-year-old became a front-row witness to one of the most horrific disasters South Korea has seen.

The smartphone video Fallas took following the deadly crowd surge shows groups of Halloween revelers carrying out their unconscious peers, one after another, from an alley near Hamilton Hotel, passing by throngs of people dressed in capes and Miyazaki movie costumes. Some people are seen administrating CPR to injured people on the pavement while others shout for help above blaring dance music.

Fallas said police and emergency workers were constantly pleading with people to step up if they knew how to give CPR because they were overwhelmed by the large number of the injured laid out on the street.

“I saw a lot of (young) people laughing, but I don’t think they were (really) laughing because, you know, what’s funny?” Fallas said. “They were laughing because they were too scared. Because to be in front of a thing like that is not easy. Not everyone knows how to process that.”

Fallas said he and his friends were trapped among the huge throngs of people pushing toward the alley when police officers began breaking the lines from behind to approach the injured. He said people near his group didn’t initially know what was happening.

“We were we were unable to move back. The music was loud. Nobody knew what was happening. People were still partying with the emergency happening in front of us,” he said. “We were like, ‘What’s going on from here, where we can go?’ There was no exit.”

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October 30, 2022
University of Kentucky student dies in Seoul Halloween crush

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — A University of Kentucky student who was studying in South Korea was one of more than 150 people killed when a huge Halloween party crowd surged into a narrow alley in a nightlife district in Seoul, the school said Sunday.

Anne Gieske, a nursing student from northern Kentucky, died in the crush of people in the Itaewon area of Seoul on Saturday night, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said in a statement posted on the school’s website.

Gieske was studying in South Korea this semester with an education abroad program, Capilouto said. The university also has two other students and a faculty member there, but they have been contacted and they are safe, he said.

“We have been in contact with Anne’s family and will provide whatever support we can — now and in the days ahead — as they cope with this indescribable loss,” the statement said.

The university is located in Lexington, Kentucky. The school has offered online and phone resources for students who are grieving, including the services of a mental health clinician. The university has nearly 80 students from South Korea, the statement said.

“As a community, it is a sacred responsibility we must keep — to be there for each other in moments of sheer joy and in those of deepest sadness,” Capilouto said. “That is what compassionate communities do.”

It remained unclear what led the crowd to surge into the downhill alley, and authorities promised a thorough investigation. Witnesses said people fell on each other “like dominoes,” and some victims were bleeding from their noses and mouths while being given CPR.

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October 30, 2022
What we know about the deadly Halloween disaster in Seoul | CNN

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Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

Most weekends, the narrow alleys of Itaewon, the neon-lit nightlife district in South Korea’s capital Seoul, are busy with partygoers and tourists. Now it’s the site of one of the country’s worst disasters.

On Saturday night, tens of thousands of people flooded into the area in central Seoul to celebrate Halloween – but panic erupted as the crowds swelled, with some witnesses saying it became hard to breathe and impossible to move.

At least 151 were killed in the crush, with dozens more injured. Authorities have now launched an urgent investigation to find out how what was supposed to be a night of celebration went so horribly wrong, as families across the country mourn and search for missing loved ones.

Here’s what we know so far.

Itaewon has long been a popular place to celebrate Halloween, especially as the holiday became more popular in Asia in recent years. Some even fly into Seoul from other countries in the region for the festivities.

But for the past two years, celebrations were muted by pandemic restrictions on crowd sizes and mask mandates.

Saturday night marked the first Halloween since the country lifted these restrictions – lending it particular significance for many eager participants in Seoul, as well as international visitors including foreign residents and tourists.

Hotels and ticketed events in the neighborhood had been booked solid in advance, and large crowds were expected.

Witnesses told CNN there was very little – if any – crowd control before the mass of people turned deadly.

Videos and photos posted to social media show people crammed together, standing shoulder to shoulder in the narrow street.

Crowds are not unusual for that area, or for Seoul residents, who are used to jam-packed subways and streets in a city of almost 10 million.

One eyewitness said it took some time for people to realize something was wrong, with people’s panicked screams competing with music blaring from the surrounding clubs and bars.

After the first emergency calls came in around 10:24 p.m., authorities rushed to the scene – but the sheer volume of people made it difficult to reach those who needed help.

Video posted to social media showed people performing compressions on other partygoers lying on the ground as they waited for medical assistance.

The thousands of people in Halloween costumes contributed to the widespread sense of confusion and chaos. One witness described seeing a police officer shouting during the disaster – but some revelers mistook him for another partygoer.

The cause of the crush is still under investigation, though officials said there were no gas leaks or fires on site.

The casualties were young, mostly in their teens and early 20s, authorities said. Known for its nightlife and trendy restaurants, Itaewon is popular among backpackers and international students.

Among the 151 dead were 19 foreign nationals, with victims from Iran, Norway, China, Thailand and Uzbekistan, according to authorities.

More than 90% of the victims have been identified, South Korea’s Minister of Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min said on Sunday.

He added that about 10 people can’t be identified, as some are under the age of 17 – too young to hold a national ID card – and others are foreign nationals.

As of 2 p.m. Sunday local time, Seoul authorities had received 3,580 missing persons reports, said the city government. That number could include multiple reports for the same person, or reports filed Saturday night for people who have since been found.

Lee Sang-min, Minister of the Interior and Safety, said on Sunday that “a considerable number” of police and security forces had been sent to another part of Seoul on Saturday in response to expected protests there.

Meanwhile in Itaewon, the crowd had not been unusually large, he said, so only a “normal” level of security forces had been deployed there.

As the disaster unfolded Saturday night, more than 1,700 emergency response forces were dispatched, including more than 500 firefighters, 1,100 police officials, and about 70 government workers.

President Yoon Suk Yeol called an emergency meeting and urged officials to identify the dead as soon as possible.

But even hours later, families were still waiting to find out if their loved ones survived.

In the immediate aftermath, many people were transferred to nearby facilities, while bodies were taken to multiple hospital mortuaries. Families gathered at sites near the scene, where officials were compiling the names of the missing and deceased.

Yoon promised to implement new measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again, saying the government would “conduct emergency inspections not only for Halloween events but also for local festivals and thoroughly manage them so they are conducted in an orderly and safe manner.”

The government will also provide psychological treatment and a fund for families of the deceased and injured. Authorities have declared a national mourning period until November 5, and designated the district of Yongsan-gu, where Itaewon is located, a special disaster area.

This narrow street was the scene of deadly incident in Seoul

As a stunned and grieving nation grapples with the tragedy, questions are also emerging about how such a disaster could have unfolded in a popular area where people are known to gather.

It’s hard to pinpoint what might have triggered the crush – but authorities “would have anticipated high numbers … before Saturday night,” said Juliette Kayyem, a disaster management expert and national security analyst for CNN.

“There is a responsibility on the part of the authorities to be monitoring crowd volume in real time, so they can sense the need to get people out,” she added.

Suah Cho, 23, was caught up in the crowd but managed to escape into a building along the alley. When asked whether she had seen any officials trying to limit the number of people entering the alley, she replied: “Before the incident, not at all.”

Another eyewitness described the situation getting “worse and worse,” saying they could hear “people asking for help for other people, because there were not enough rescuers that can just handle all that.”

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October 30, 2022
At least 149 killed in Seoul Halloween crowd surge | CNN

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Rescue teams work at the scene in Itaewon on Saturday night.
Kim Hong-ji/Reuters

At least 146 people have died and 150 were injured in an apparent crowd surge during packed Halloween festivities in Seoul Saturday night, according to the Yongsan Fire Department chief.

Here are the latest developments.

Death toll could rise: With local hospitals treating dozens of injured people from the Seoul Halloween emergency, the death toll will likely increase, a local health official said. The cause of injuries and deaths in the incident has not been officially confirmed, added Choi Jae-won, the head of Yongsan Health Center.

Official blames crowd surge: A local fire official described the emergency as a “presumed stampede,” but the investigation is just beginning. Few details on specific injuries were provided. Yonhap News Agency reported dozens of people suffered from “cardiac arrest” and trouble breathing.

Authorities said the emergency was not due to a gas leak or a fire in the popular nightclub district. They started receiving reports of people “buried” in the crowds there around 10:24 p.m. local time (9:24 a.m. ET) Saturday.

Witnesses observe chaotic scene: A witness said people were jammed on a narrow street and could not breathe. “I saw the people going to the left side and I saw the person getting to the opposite side,” Sung Sehyun told CNN. “The person in the middle got jammed, so they had no way to communicate. They could not breathe.”

CNN’s Will Ripley reported that a long line of stretchers forming on the street would be used to take bodies from the scene.

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October 29, 2022
At least 146 killed during incident at Halloween festivities in Seoul | CNN

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Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—

At least 146 people are now reported to have been killed during an incident at Halloween festivities in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood Saturday night, according to Choi Seong-bum, chief of the Yongsan-gu Fire Department.

At least 150 others were also reported injured, the chief added.

Authorities are still investigating exactly what caused the incident, but the fire chief said it was a “presumed stampede” and that many people fell, resulting in casualties. The chief said they received reports of people “buried” in crowds starting around 10:24 p.m. local time Saturday night.

There was no gas leak nor fire on site, according to the chief. The cause of the deaths has not been confirmed.

Earlier, the Yonhap News Agency reported that some people had suffered from “cardiac arrest,” attributing the statement to fire authorities. Emergency officials assisted at least 81 people in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood reporting “difficulty breathing.”

Dozens of the injured were transferred to nearby hospitals, said Choi Jae-won, the head of Yongsan Health Center, adding that the death toll would likely increase.

The Seoul city government is also receiving reports of missing people as there are many unidentified victims. The bodies of the victims are being transferred to multiple hospital mortuaries, according to authorities.

A witness described a chaotic scene to CNN, saying he saw people jammed in a narrow street unable to breathe.

“I saw people going to the left side and I saw the person getting to the opposite side. So, the person in the middle got jammed, so they had no way to communicate, they could not breathe,” Song Sehyun told CNN.

Police closed off the area and social media videos showed people lying in the streets and on stretchers as first responders rendered aid.

The fire chief said that more than 1,700 emergency response forces have been dispatched, including 517 firefighters, 1,100 police officials, and about 70 government workers.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sent a disaster medical assistance team to the Halloween incident, according to the presidential office.

The president also ordered authorities to secure emergency beds in hospitals nearby and to implement swift rescue operations and treatment, presidential spokesman Lee Jae-Myung said in a briefing.

Yoon was in an emergency meeting regarding the situation, the office said in a statement.

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October 29, 2022
South Korean officials say death toll increases to 146 at Halloween crowd surge in Seoul

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South Korean officials say death toll increases to 146 at Halloween crowd surge in Seoul

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October 29, 2022
At least 120 killed in Seoul Halloween incident | CNN

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Rescue crews seen in the nightlife district of Itaewon in Seoul on Saturday night.
Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

At least 59 people were killed in the Halloween incident in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood Saturday night, according to the Yongsan Fire Department chief.

At least 150 others were also injured, the chief added.

The cause of the deaths was not immediately provided, but the chief said many people fell during the Halloween festivities, resulting in casualties.

Yonhap News Agency reported dozens of people suffered from “cardiac arrest,” according to fire authorities, and at least 81 people told emergency officials they had “difficulty breathing.”

A total of 848 emergency forces have been dispatched, including 364 firefighters and 400 police officials, according to the chief.

Police have closed off the area in the neighborhood, and social media videos are showing people lying in the streets.

Authorities have not yet provided exact details on the cause of the incident or conditions of those injured.

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October 29, 2022
Officials: 100 injured after Halloween crowd surge in Seoul

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SEOUL, South Korea — About 100 people were injured and an unspecified number were feared dead after being crushed by a large crowd pushing forward on a narrow street during Halloween festivities in the capital Seoul, South Korean officials said.

Choi Cheon-sik, an official from the National Fire Agency, said around 100 people were reported as injured during the crowd surge Saturday night in the Itaewon leisure district and around 50 were being treated for cardiac arrest as of early Sunday.

Choi said it was believed that people were crushed to death after a large crowd began pushing forward in a narrow alley near Hamilton Hotel, a major party spot in Seoul.

He said more than 400 emergency workers and 140 vehicles from around the nation, including all available personnel in Seoul, were deployed to the streets to treat the injured.

Officials didn’t immediately release a death toll, as they usually don’t until the deaths are confirmed at hospitals. The National Fire Agency separately said in a statement that officials were still trying to determine the exact number of emergency patients.

TV footage and photos from the scene showed ambulance vehicles lined up in streets amid a heavy police presence and emergency workers moving the injured in stretchers. Emergency workers and pedestrians were also seen performing CPR on people lying in the streets. Multiple people, apparently among those injured, were seen covered in yellow blankets.

Police also confirmed that dozens of people were being given CPR on Itaewon streets while many others have been taken to nearby hospitals.

A local police officer said he was also informed that a stampede occurred on Itaewon’s streets where a crowd of people gathered for Halloween festivities. The officer requested anonymity, saying the details of the incident was still under investigation.

Some local media reports earlier said the crush happened after a large number of people rushed to an Itaewon bar after hearing an unidentified celebrity visited there.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol issued a statement calling for officials to ensure swift treatment for those injured and review the safety of the festivity sites. He also instructed the Health Ministry to swiftly deploy disaster medical assistance teams and secure beds in nearby hospital to treat the injured.

Local media said around 100,000 people flocked to Itaewon streets for the Halloween festivities, which were the biggest in years following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions in recent months.

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October 29, 2022