Yoon, ruling party opt to attend church memorial for Itaewon tragedy

President Yoon Suk Yeol is attending a memorial service at Yeongam Church in Seongbuk, northeastern Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap]

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday chose to attend a memorial service at a church instead of the memorial event held in Seoul Plaza to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Itaewon disaster. Yoon took a detour to deliver a memorial message amid a flurry of comments from the opposition party criticizing his decision to skip the event.

“This day last year was the most sorrowful of my life,” Yoon said in a eulogy at Yeongam Church in Seongbuk, northeastern Seoul. “I would like to express my deepest sympathies to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones.” Yoon also said that the government has made great efforts to create a safe Korea over the past year, which he stressed would continue. Yoon used to attend Yeongam Church when he was an elementary school student.

The leadership of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) also participated in the memorial service with Yoon. While Representative Kim Ki-hyeon, the PPP leader, and Representative Yoon Jae-ok, the floor leader, did not attend, Policy Committee Chairman Yu Eui-dong, Secretary-General Lee Man-hee, and Innovation Committee Chairman Ihn Yohan attended in their individual capacities.

The government and ruling party kept things low key to ensure that the first anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy would not become a source of contention. Attendees of the party council meeting on Sunday even observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims prior to the meeting, where measures to prevent a recurrence of the disaster were discussed. The ruling party said that day it would swiftly pass an amendment to the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, contrary to the opposition’s calls for a special law on the Itaewon tragedy. “Unfortunately, the amendment to the framework act on disaster and safety management, which we submitted in December 2022, only passed the Public Administration and Safety Committee last month, and other safety-related bills are also stuck in the standing committee,” PPP spokesperson Park Jung-ha said in a commentary. “We will work together as a party to pass the bill as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the entire leadership of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), including leader Lee Jae-myung, attended the memorial event for the first anniversary of the Itaewon tragedy at Seoul Plaza. “We will do our best to enact a special law on the Itaewon tragedy, as we believe that investigating the truth is a way of expressing our condolences,” the DPK said. Lee also criticized that the responsible government officials, who failed to stand by the victims and bereaved families during the tragedy and reiterated his determination to pass an Itaewon special law to reveal the truth, hold those responsible accountable, and prevent such disasters from happening again.