Did He Know Park Hee-young Would Be Out on Bail? Yongsan District Mayor’s Chief of Staff Told Residents, “Once She Is Released, She Will Tend to Your Needs”

Park Hee-young, the Yongsan-gu district mayor who was arrested and charged for her poor response to the Itaewon crowd crush, leaves the Nambu (southern) Detention Center in Guro-gu, Seoul on the evening of June 7 after the court accepted her request for bail. Yonhap News

A, the chief of staff to Park Hee-young, the district mayor of Yongsan-gu, met with residents weeks before Park was out on bail and said, “Once the district mayor is released soon, she will carefully tend to you, the elderly.”

B, a Yongsan-gu resident, said over the phone on June 8, “About two weeks ago, A and the director of administrative support at the Yongsan-gu office visited the senior citizens center in Hyochang-dong.” Park’s chief of staff told the elderly residents gathered at the center that the district mayor, who was unfortunately in the detention center, would soon be released, and suggested that she would visit the center when she was out soon. B said, “I heard that the two people visited sixteen senior citizens centers in Yongsan-gu that day,” and added, “When we asked them for a massage chair at the center, they said they would buy us one.”

Another Yongsan-gu resident, C, said, “Last month, the chief of staff came and told us that District Mayor Park would visit the senior citizens center.”

On June 2, there was an event by the Yongsan-gu chapter of the Korea Senior Citizens Association at Sudeoksa Temple in Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, and there, rumors spread that Park would soon be released. D, a Yongsan-gu resident, said, “Someone who seemed to be a politician came and said, ‘Park Hee-young will be out. When she is out, she will serve you senior citizens well.’” A was not present at this event. It appears someone from the political circle or another employee at the gu office made the remark.

This sparked criticism that Park, who was identified as the person responsible for the poor response to the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon, was trying to “manage” public opinion, making it seem like her return as district mayor was fact even before the court accepted her bail request at a time when she should be reflecting on her shortcomings and humbly attending to court proceedings. D said, “I thought, ‘What kind of a country would this be if they released Park?’” and added, “After Park was released, the people around me complained that she wasn’t being responsible for anything.”

A stirred controversy in the gu council, when he was surprisingly appointed to chief of staff as a grade-7 civil servant. In an audit of administrative affairs by the Yongsan-gu Council on November 22, 2022, Jang Jung-ho, a member of the gu council asked, “We usually hired a grade-6 administrative official or a grade-6 special official, but this time, why is a grade-7 driver serving as chief of staff?” A gu office representative answered, “The appointment is the sole discretion of the district mayor,” and added, “It was probably because of his special capabilities...” A was later promoted from grade-7 to grade-6. The director of administrative support was also promoted from grade-5 to grade-4 in personnel transfers determined just before Park was arrested last December.

A explained, “I visited the senior citizen centers along with the department overseeing them to check and see if there were any inconveniences,” and said, “Since the review on bail was scheduled for May 31, I told them she would soon return because I thought she would be reinstated around that time.” He further explained, “The district mayor did not instruct us to visit the senior citizen centers.” The director of administrative support said, “Maybe the residents said that because they misunderstood, but I did not go to the senior citizen centers or Sudeoksa Temple at the time.”

Park was released on bail on June 7 and began work at the office the next morning, until the bereaved families of the Itaewon victims began gathering in front of the Yongsan-gu office. The victims’ families argued, “She did not mention a word of apology to the families who went to the detention center at the time of her release.” Park took June 9 off and did not come to the office.