According to the Yonhap News Agency, the results of the inter-departmental joint inspection of the Itaewon stampede accident in Seoul released by the South Korean government on the 23rd showed that after the Yoon Seok Yuet government moved the presidential palace to Longshan District of Seoul, the police deployed fewer police forces in the Itaewon area, which had an indirect impact on the accident.
According to investigations, after the Yoon Seok Yuet government moved the presidential palace to Yongshan, the leadership of the Seoul Police Department and Yongshan Police Department put the security work of the presidential palace first. On the day of the incident, the police deployed police forces in the vicinity of the presidential palace to control the rally, but did not dispatch police officers to the Itaewon area. Police officials did not take any measures.
According to the report, as a follow-up measure, although the police conducted a year-long special surveillance since November 2022, the surveillance work group did not produce a work report, the delivery was not available, resulting in the accident responsible person not being properly punished and normal retirement.
The report also said that many problems have also been exposed in the emergency response of Korean governments. At the time of the stampede accident in Itaewon, the reporting system of Longshan District Government did not operate normally, and the district government did not take or implement follow-up measures such as the establishment of the disaster safety countermeasure headquarters in time. In May 2023, the district government asked the municipal government to punish those responsible for the Itaewon tragedy, but the municipal government did not follow the formal process and suspended the punishment after making an internal report. As a result, the responsible person retired without being punished.
On October 29, 2022, a serious stampede occurred in Itaewon, Yongsan District, Seoul, resulting in a total of 159 deaths and 195 injuries.