Seoul marked a somber anniversary over the weekend, a year after nearly 160 people died in a crowd surge in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in the city.
Oct. 29, 2022, had started as a long-awaited Halloween celebration — the first in several years in South Korea that was free of pandemic restrictions. A mass of revelers and a bottleneck of human traffic in a cramped alley that night led to catastrophe, and a national outpouring of grief and questions about why the authorities were unable to prevent it.
This year, the gathering in Itaewon was much smaller. Several neighborhoods in Seoul saw an outsized police presence.
Thousands gathered on Sunday at a temporary memorial in front of Seoul City Hall to pay their respects to the victims.
Emergency vehicles and police cars lined the main street in Itaewon on Saturday night. The authorities had deployed additional personnel to help manage pedestrian traffic in several nightlife areas over the weekend.
At Seoul City Hall on Sunday, people held posters that read “10.29 Itaewon disaster: We will remember” and “10.29 Itaewon disaster: Enact the special law,” referring to a bill that would open an independent investigation into the catastrophe.
Earlier in the week, a memorial to the victims was unveiled in the alley in Itaewon. Lee Hyo-suk, whose daughter Jeong Ju-hee, 30, had died in the crowd crush, cried as she approached the plaque on Thursday.
The increased police presence was visible on Saturday in the alley where the crowd crush had occurred last year.
