In South Korea, the trauma of Itaewon remains alive

Seoul (South Korea)

Special correspondence

Under the snow, Choi Ji-hye, 27, meditates in the alley of the Hamilton Hotel where 158 people, the vast majority of young people, lost their lives, asphyxiated, during a stampede, last October 30, in a neighborhood of Seoul. She attended the Halloween party that night. “The evening of the tragedy, I was there, very close to this street. I always thought I could have been one of the victims, ”she breathes, her voice trembling.

White chrysanthemums, flowers traditionally offered to mourn the dead in South Korea, stand alongside candles, clementines and mini milk cartons. More than two months later, still shaken by the tragedy, like a large part of Korean society, Ji-hye returns to the scene for the first time.

The young woman believes that the government owes an apology to the relatives of the victims. “Some say the bereaved families should just come together and not politicize this tragedy. I do not agree. Like many Koreans, Ji-hye wants to hold the government and the political class as a whole accountable.

A little further on, warm inside a cafe, Cho Yeon-ji, 19, accuses the government and the police chief of Yongsan district of having failed in their main mission: to protect the population. “They blamed the victims for being in Itaewon that night! “, gets carried away the young girl.

Grieving is a heavy burden for families. They accuse the government of having wanted to pass their children off as drug addicts, a scandalous way of exculpating themselves in their eyes. For part of the population, the tragedy of Itaewon remains a drama that still traumatizes the spirits. Public apologies, preventive measures and recognition of the memory of the victims are at the heart of the demands emanating from the crowd that meets every week in the heart of the capital.

After the Itaewon tragedy, the demands of bereaved families mingled with those of protesting citizens who, every Saturday, organize a sit-in near the town hall as part of the Candle Movement. This citizen rally had already mobilized in 2016 to obtain the dismissal of the corrupt former president Park Geun-hye. Since August 2022, the Movement’s peaceful vigils have resumed to call, this time, for the resignation of the new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, elected in May 2022, whose ultra-conservative positions are disturbing.

At the scene of the protest, Lim Yoon-kyung sells works of art whose profits will be donated to the bereaved: “I came here with the heart of a mother raising two children the same age as the victims. I came here as a citizen who thinks that the parliamentary inquiry must be carried out in depth to pay tribute to the bereaved families,” thunders the 50-year-old.

The police investigation only began on December 21, two months after a tragedy in which the absence of security forces on the spot was strongly questioned. No great results so far. What fuel the anger and frustration of families as well as that of public opinion towards a president Yoon accused of indifference.

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