Yong Hye-in: No Situation Room at Yongsan District Office... Park Hee-young, Yongsan District Mayor, Lies Again

"The place previously identified as the situation room was actually the 'duty room' on the day of the disaster"
"District Mayor Park Hee-young reversed false statements about setting up an emergency situation room and being at the accident response headquarters"
"Reviewing the duty room situation on the day shows the Yongsan District Office control tower was absent"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] It has been confirmed that the "Situation Room," which Yongsan District Office claimed to have established before the Itaewon disaster to respond to emergency situations, essentially did not exist.

On the 10th, Yoon Hye-in, a member of the Basic Income Party and part of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, announced that after analyzing the "Yongsan District Office Duty Log for October 29," the place Yongsan District Office had been referring to as the Situation Room was actually the "duty room" on the day of the disaster. She added that the eight duty staff members at Yongsan District Office on the day of the disaster were not even aware that their duty room was supposed to be the comprehensive situation room.

According to the Yongsan District Office duty log, the duty room at that time did not receive any contact from the situation room, nor did it operate the emergency contact network, which is a key role of the duty room. The patrol results of the jurisdictional area under Yongsan District Office were also not properly documented, and the Itaewon disaster was only briefly mentioned as a special note.

Furthermore, according to the "Daily Safety Management Situation Report" attached to the Yongsan District Office duty log, the phone numbers introduced as the Yongsan District Office comprehensive situation room were two, which were the numbers for the Safety and Disaster Division and the duty room, respectively.

However, when Representative Yoon's team inquired with the duty staff and the relevant department on the day, they were told that the Safety and Disaster Division had never operated as a situation room and did not have shift work, so the duty room was supposed to perform the role of the situation room. But the duty staff responded that they neither operated the duty room as a situation room nor received any contact from the situation room immediately after the disaster.

Yongsan District Office stated in a press release on October 30 that after District Mayor Park Hee-young arrived at the site around 10:50 a.m. on the 29th, he ordered the activation of the emergency contact network, established an emergency situation room at 11 a.m. to hold an emergency countermeasure meeting, and operated the Disaster Safety Countermeasure Headquarters from 12:20 a.m. on the 30th to support accident recovery efforts. However, the duty room itself did not receive any separate instructions and did not activate the emergency contact network. Even when three inquiries about missing persons related to the Itaewon disaster came in between 3:00 a.m. and 3:44 a.m. on the 30th, the duty room only responded with "unknown."

According to documents such as the "Emergency Countermeasure Meeting for Halloween Day Preparedness" held under the vice mayor's chairmanship two days before the Itaewon disaster on October 27, Yongsan District Office decided to establish a Halloween Day comprehensive situation room in the duty room at that time. However, the situation room that Yongsan District Office claimed to have operated in response to the Itaewon disaster was actually the duty room, and the duty staff on the day were unaware that the duty room was being operated as a situation room, according to Representative Yoon's team. This means that contrary to Yongsan District Office's explanations so far, the Yongsan District Office situation room essentially did not exist.

Representative Yoon said, "According to Yongsan District Office, only three duty staff, including the duty commander, went to the site immediately after the Itaewon disaster, and they said they did not receive any contact from the situation room and do not even know how many additional personnel were deployed to the site." He added, "There is no record of complaints received by the duty room on the 29th, and inquiries about missing persons after the disaster were answered with 'unknown' three times. This shows that there were no guidelines at all during Yongsan District Office's initial response."

He pointed out, "Yongsan District Office has claimed to have established a situation room immediately after the disaster, but in reality, the Safety and Disaster Division did not have duty staff, and the duty room did not receive any contact from the situation room, so it appears that the 'Yongsan District Office Situation Room' was not established anywhere. Mayor Park Hee-young keeps reversing his false statements that the situation room led the response, that an emergency situation room was established, and that he was at the accident countermeasure headquarters. Looking at the duty room situation on the day, it seems that the Yongsan District Office control tower was absent at that time," he criticized.