Tag: Seoul

I recently found myself in Itaewon and decided to walk by where the Itaewon crushing disaster happened. As I walked in to Itaewon I could quickly see how this tragedy has become fully politicized with the Korean left trying to weaponize it like they did the Sewol tragedy against former President Park Geun-hye. Near Noksopyeong Station which is located at the entrance to Itaewon, there is a protest tent set up with a bunch of signs denouncing the government. I did not walk over to their tent or try to take pictures of them because I was getting the evil eye from the angry looking activists standing by the sidewalk. I just continued to walk by them to towards the Hamilton Hotel.

I could not approach the alley from the front of the Hamilton Hotel because there was a protest going on with the riot police out in force. So I walked up a nearby alley to the World Food Street that is the road that runs behind the Hamilton Hotel. This street is lined with restaurants and bars that would have been packed on Halloween night:

From the main road that runs through Itaewon there are multiple alleys, some even smaller than the one the tragedy occurred at that accesses World Food Street. Here is an example of one of these small alleys:

Seeing the area in person it is easy to conclude that what caused the crushing tragedy to happen where it did is its proximity to Itaewon Station. There are two paths along each side of the Hamilton Hotel which is the quickest way to access World Food Street from Itaewon Station. The alley where the tragedy happened was the smallest of the two and the closest to the station. It is easy to imagine how people walking up and down this alley due to its easy access to the subway station caused it to become overcrowded. Below is a picture I took from the top of the alleyway where the tragedy occurred:

The police would not allow me to walk down the alley, but I wouldn’t have tried to anyway due to the protest going on at the entrance to the alley. Seeing the alley in person it looks actually smaller than it does in photographs. From the top of the alleyway I could see how slopped it is. Witnesses the night of the tragedy reported a group of people began pushing people down the alley. It was easy for me to imagine a group of drunks trying to walk down World Food Street getting frustrated by being backed up by the crowd moving through the alleyway and deciding to aggressively push by them causing people to fall. The slope of the alleyway is enough to cause a domino effect of people falling on top of each other if people on the top lose their balance.

What amazes me the most about this tragedy is that the police received reports of overcrowding near the Hamilton Hotel four hours before the tragedy happened. There is literally a police station across the street from the Hamilton Hotel:

Why didn’t anyone from the police station walk across the street and respond to the reports? What were they doing during those four hours? Did the 119 operators even call to let them know? Did anyone walk in to the station and tell the police what was going on? If someone did what was the response of the police? These are questions that should be simple to get answers to.

Being on the ground and looking at the site only further validated to me how easily avoidable this entire tragedy was. Police responding to the alleyway and controlling pedestrian traffic to make it one way probably would have prevented the disaster. Just closing Itaewon Station and making people walk from subway stations further away from the center of Itaewon would have dispersed the crowds enough from this narrow alleyway that this tragedy would have been prevented as well. Hopefully some lessons are learned in regards to crowd control planning by local authorities, it is just unfortunate it cost the lives of 158 people to learn this lesson.

I have driven on this expressway many times and it is amazing that apparently an accident with a garbage truck caused a fire this big:

At least five people were killed and 37 others injured, three of them seriously, Thursday in a noise-barrier tunnel fire along an expressway in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, fire authorities said. 

The blaze was reported to have occurred at 1:49 p.m. inside the noise tunnel in Gwacheon along the Second Gyeongin Expressway that connects the western port city of Incheon to Seongnam City, the authorities said.

Fire authorities initially announced the fire started after a collision between a bus and a garbage truck but later said they would need further investigation to determine the exact cause, leaving open the possibility that the truck alone may have been responsible for the deadly blaze.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It should come as know surprise that the secret Chinese police base is being run out of a restaurant in the same building housing China’s state broadcaster CCTV:

A Chinese restaurant in southern Seoul suspected of being operated as a base for a secret Chinese police station in Korea was found to have opened another branch office right in front of the National Assembly building in Yeouido, western Seoul.  
   
The company opened the office in a nine-story building located on a road directly in front of the National Assembly building in December 2020, according to a certificate of registry information on the restaurant’s operator obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo.  
   
A total of seven businesses were in operation in the building, the JoongAng Ilbo confirmed Friday. 

wo Chinese media-related companies were located in the building: a Chinese media-related office and the Seoul bureau office of China Central Television (CCTV) were on the ninth floor. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It has been a cold December in South Korea:

The Han River in Seoul was declared frozen by South Korea’s state weather agency for the first time this winter Sunday, as a cold snap has continued for days.

The first freeze of the river was observed on the river running through the capital city more than two weeks earlier than previous years, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA).

According to the KMA, the river is officially frozen when it has thick ice in a 100-meter-long area between the Han River Bridge’s second and fourth piers. The bridge links Yongsan Ward and Dongjak Ward

In previous winters, the first freeze on the river was declared around Jan. 10. Last winter, the Han River never officially froze.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

On the Airport line (AREX), an adorable mascot doll reserves the seats for pregnant women. Cute and subtle way of encouraging etiquette. Good 눈치 in action. pic.twitter.com/ic3JuIxork

— 10원 Tips (@10wontips) December 14, 2022

This drunken idiot gets to experience the full extent of the Korean court system:

A member of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) has been arrested after beating up a taxi driver so badly that the victim could not work for a number of days, according to the police in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday.

The aggressor’s attack was recorded by a black-box video camera installed inside the taxi at about 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 27. He threw punches at the victim, who is 58 years old, using both arms as the driver took the beating whilst trying to guard his head with his hands.

The American then returned to Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, right across the road from where the incident happened. The aggressor left his wallet on the back seat of the taxi, where his identification card was found. Officers from Seongnam Sujeong Police Station arrived at the scene after the soldier fled the scene. The authorities said that they will call in the aggressor to the police station for questioning.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the assault happened after the Soldiers credit card was declined for payment. The driver for his part is smartly playing up his injuries as much as possible trying to get as much money from the U.S. military as he can.