Yongsan 112 Team Leader: "No Order Given to Deploy Security Mobile Unit to Iimjae"

At the first trial date of former Yongsan Police Station Chief Lee Im-jae, who was indicted and detained over the Itaewon disaster, testimony emerged that there was no request for the riot police on Halloween day.

Former Yongsan Police Chief (Senior Superintendent) Lee Im-jae, who was charged with a warrant over the inadequate response to the Itaewon disaster and allegations of deleting information reports, is leaving the court after completing the pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) at the Western District Court in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on the 5th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

On the afternoon of the 8th, Jung Hyun-wook, head of the 112 Situation Room Operations Support Team at Yongsan Police Station, appeared as a witness at the trial held at the Seoul Western District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Bae Seong-jung) and said, “Although the report originally stated ‘request for traffic riot police,’ I revised it to ‘request for riot police’ under the direction of former Chief Lee and prepared the report,” adding, “After receiving contact from the Police Agency’s Security Bureau, I corrected it back to the original.”

Team Leader Jung testified that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency did not provide riot police support for the Itaewon Global Village Festival held on October 15 last year, and based on practical verification, judged that due to the high demand for riot police on the day of the disaster, it would be difficult to receive riot police support from the Seoul Police Agency, so only traffic riot police were requested.

Former Chief Lee is accused of causing death and injury by professional negligence for failing to establish accident prevention measures despite anticipating large crowds in the Itaewon area on Halloween day, and for not taking timely measures such as deploying riot police and controlling roads despite hearing 112 emergency calls and radio communications, which increased casualties.

He is also accused of instructing the falsification of the time of arrival at the scene and police rescue activities in the situation report to cover up his inadequate response (forgery and use of false official documents).

Team Leader Jung said he realized that the arrival time of former Chief Lee at the scene was incorrectly recorded during the preparation of the second situation report immediately after the disaster. He said, “The first report recorded the response status up to 10:17 p.m., and I was supposed to write from the next situation,” adding, “I thought the chief’s arrival time was incorrect. So, I deleted and rewrote the response status up to 10:17 p.m.” Team Leader Jung also added that he told former 112 Chief Song Byung-joo and others, “If we write it like this, it could be a problem because it is false.”

Additionally, Team Leader Jung stated, “Around 10:30 p.m., I heard a female police officer’s radio communication outdoors saying ‘send all available personnel,’ and I recognized the situation was urgent,” adding, “The voice on the radio was very loud.”

Former Chief Lee had previously claimed that he did not hear the radio well and only became aware of the accident around 11 p.m.

Regarding former Chief Song’s accusation of ordering to push the crowd from the road back onto the sidewalk despite recognizing the risk of a crush accident, Team Leader Jung testified, “It was physically impossible in the actual situation.”

Team Leader Jung said, “Former Chief Song’s instruction meant to control the crowd so that they would not occupy the road. It was impossible for eight police officers at the scene to use force or physical power to push the crowd onto the sidewalk.”