Seoul's Itaewon disaster inquiry enters second day, probes interagency coordination and preparedness
The Special Investigation Committee for the Itaewon disaster is in its second day of hearings on March 13, 2026, at the Bankers Hall conference building in Seoul’s Jung-gu district. The panel is continuing a probe into how authorities prepared for and responded to the Oct. 29, 2022 crowd crush in the Itaewon nightlife district, with a focus on whether institutions coordinated effectively before, during, and after the tragedy.
On Tuesday, witnesses include Park Hee-young, head of Yongsan District, along with former senior officials from Korea’s police and fire services. Yun Hee-geun, former commissioner-general of the National Police Agency; Kim Kwang-ho, former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency; and Nam Hwa-yeong, acting head of the Fire Service, are slated to testify alongside Park.
The first day of hearings featured a witness identified as Kim, a former Seoul police chief, who refused to testify and exercised his right to decline to answer questions. In response, the committee approved formal actions to file a complaint against him.
The panel has said its aim is to identify root causes of problems in the pre-disaster preventive posture by police and fire authorities, and to scrutinize the handling of the response and relief operations in the immediate aftermath. The two-day session is set to conclude after Wednesday’s proceedings.
Earlier in the process, the special committee had sought the presence of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, but his side notified the panel that he would not attend due to ongoing court proceedings. The committee later proceeded with other witnesses to advance its inquiry.
Itaewon, a central Seoul district known for its dense, late-night crowds, became the site of one of South Korea’s deadliest peacetime disasters when a mass casualty incident occurred in 2022. The hearings are part of an official effort to understand what went wrong and how to prevent a recurrence, a question that resonates with public safety and civil governance in any country.
For U.S. readers, the proceedings underscore ongoing concerns about interagency coordination during mass gatherings, incident-command structure, and accountability of local and national authorities in crisis situations. Lessons from Seoul’s scrutiny—about how police, fire services, and local government share information and responsibilities—may inform best practices for event planning, emergency response, and disaster reforms in the United States. The two-day session is scheduled to wrap up with the committee releasing its latest findings.