“We Will by All Means Extend the Parliamentary Inquiry” Democratic Party Meets Itaewon Victims’ Families

Bereaved Mother Strokes a Picture of Her Son: Jo Mi-eun, the mother of Lee Ji-han, who died in the Itaewon Halloween crowd crush, passes her hand over a picture of her son while attending a meeting between the Democratic Party of Korea and a group representing the victims’ families at the National Assembly on January 3. Bak Min-gyu, Senior Reporter

Park Hong-keun, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on Tuesday, “We will by all means extend the parliamentary inquiry into the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon,” and argued that the lawmakers needed at least ten more days.

Park made the statement when he met with a group representing the October 29 Itaewon crowd crush victims’ families at the National Assembly on January 3. The special committee for the parliamentary inquiry, which launched on November 24, 2022, will conclude its 45-day inquiry on January 7.

Lee Jong-cheol, the representative of the bereaved families said, “The ruling and opposition parties agreed to set aside 45 days for the parliamentary inquiry, but the lawmakers actually conducted the investigation for just ten days,” and demanded lawmakers to extend the investigation period. Due to the delay in passing the 2023 budget, the special committee was only able to conduct its first field inspection on December 21, meaning that the committee really conducted the investigation for just ten days.

In the private meeting, Park said, “When we consider the third parliamentary hearing, the public hearing with experts, and discussions to adopt the parliamentary hearing report, we need to secure ten or more days,” according to Lee Soo-jin, the Democratic Party spokesperson on the floor.

The bereaved families group argued that the victims’ families and survivors should be called in as witnesses in the third parliamentary hearing. The special committee will conduct the first two hearings on January 4 and 6. However, the ruling and opposition parties have failed to narrow their differences on the witnesses, so the schedule for the third hearing has yet to be confirmed. The opposition party wants to call the victims’ families and survivors as witnesses, which the ruling party has opposed.

The group of victims’ families asked the National Assembly to prevent secondary victimization and report witnesses who give false statements in the parliamentary inquiry or who do not appear before the lawmakers. They also requested a space to remember the victims. Lee Jong-cheol, head of the bereaved families group said, “Even if the ruling and opposition parties come together, we can’t guarantee that the lawmakers will uncover the truth. Yet, in this situation, they have the mind to take sides. It’s deplorable.”

Negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties continued to go in circles on Tuesday, four days before the end of the parliamentary inquiry into the Itaewon tragedy. Floor leaders Joo Ho-young (People Power Party) and Park Hong-keun (Democratic Party of Korea) discussed extending the parliamentary inquiry as well as the sunset provisions on the Safe Trucking Freight Rate and the special extension of work hours, which ended last year, but failed to reach an agreement.

Joo mentioned that Park asked to extend the period for the parliamentary inquiry and to hold an extraordinary session in January and said, “We decided to discuss the extension of the parliamentary inquiry after listening to the thoughts of the special committee. As for the extraordinary session in January, we cannot agree if the Democratic Party wants a session to pass legislation without consensus.” Park also conveyed that the two parties did not agree to the extraordinary session in January and said, “Let’s keep an eye on the situation.”

As for the sunset provisions, the two parties only reaffirmed their differences. The Democratic Party demanded a three-year extension of the Safe Trucking Freight Rate, but the People Power Party insisted on reviewing the bill from square one. The PPP argued for the need to extend the special extension of work hours, but the Democratic Party was lukewarm on this issue.

The so-called “yellow envelope act,” which restricts companies from claiming compensation for damages against workers who engaged in a strike, is another controversial issue. In a meeting with the press, Kim Sung-whan, head of the Democratic Party’s policy committee, explained that the party would finalize its position this week and said, “I believe we will have to seek the understanding of the government and ruling party, the Justice Party, labor and businesses and begin procedures.”