Many South Koreans are showing a strong level of embarrassment and anger toward their country, a cultural and economic powerhouse, that is facing criticism it still ignores safety and regulatory issues after the Halloween tragedy that left over 150 dead.
There are growing questions here about why South Korea hasn’t learned its lessons since the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 304 people — mostly teenagers on a school trip. That disaster also prompted national soul-searching on the country’s failure to enforce safety and regulatory rules.
On Tuesday, President Yoon Suk Yeol acknowledged that South Korea lacks studies on crowd management and ordered officials to formulate effective crowd control methods based on high-tech resources such as drones. Police also said they don’t have guidelines to deal with crowd surges at events that have no official organizers, like the Halloween festivities in Itaewon.
“When I first saw such things on TV, I thought they were happening in a foreign country, not here,” said Kim Suk Hee, 40, a real estate agent. “I was so stunned to learn that it was Itaewon, because I had actually planned to go there with my family for Halloween the next day. I still have trauma over what happened.”
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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