Rep. Kim Seok-gi, who was elected as the new Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, mentioned the Yongsan disaster at the first Supreme Council meeting yesterday.
Rep. Kim called the Yongsan disaster the “Yongsan fire accident,” and emphasized that the Supreme Court had already unanimously recognized that the police had legally enforced the law.
This was said in an attempt to refute the comments made by the Democratic Party of Korea, which criticized him as the “responsible person for the Yongsan disaster.”
Rep. Kim explained that suppression was inevitable because it was a serious illegal violent protest similar to an urban terror attack in which the National Evicted People’s Association and evictees, experts in illegal violent demonstrations, indiscriminately threw firebombs, acid bottles, and stones at citizens and vehicles.
At the 10th anniversary of the Yongsan disaster four years ago, Rep. Kim made a statement to the effect that “if the same situation happens, we have no choice but to make the same decision.”
The Yongsan disaster occurred in 2009 when police special forces forcibly suppressed evictees protesting at the Namildang building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, resulting in the deaths of 5 evictees and 1 special forces member, and 30 people were injured.
The person who approved and approved the suppression operation plan was Rep. Kim Seok-ki, who was the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner at the time.
The police deployed special forces a day after the sit-in protest began, and in the process, firebombs thrown by evictees led to a large fire, increasing the damage.
As Rep. Kim argued, the Supreme Court sided with the police in 2010, saying, “The suppression operation carried out by the police cannot be considered an illegal execution of duties.”
However, the court added that there were regrets as to whether the timing of the suppression operation was appropriate, including the failure to secure equipment as planned and the failure to consider fire accident prevention.
Legal judgment wasn’t everything.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea expressed the opinion that the police took excessive measures, saying that they only focused on arrests even when unexpected actions, including self-immolation and arson, were expected.
During the fact-finding process of the National Police Agency’s human rights violation case in 2018, circumstances were revealed that the police command pushed ahead with early suppression without observing the negotiation attempts of the on-site intelligence officer or changes in the situation of the sit-in protesters.
Even when the throwing of firebombs had stopped and road traffic had normalized, they pushed for the deployment of special forces.
It was also revealed that after the disaster, 900 cyber investigators nationwide were mobilized to create public opinion favorable to the police.
The following year, an investigation by the Ministry of Justice’s Past History Committee found that the prosecution was passive in its investigation into allegations of excessive suppression, including only conducting a written investigation into Seoul Commissioner Kim Seok-gi.
Rep. Kim Seok-ki mentioned moral responsibility at the meeting.
“As a police commander at the time, I feel very heartbroken over the loss of life,” he said. “Whenever I had the opportunity, I prayed for the souls of those who passed away and expressed deep condolences to their families.”
At the same time, he emphasized his decision, saying, “Although many police officers tried to dissuade me with tears in my eyes, I resigned from the position of police chief out of a sense of moral responsibility.”
The full story of the Yongsan fire accident revealed by Rep. Kim is that, unfortunately, casualties occurred in the process of protecting the lives and safety of innocent citizens from the violence of illegal protesters.
However, in the background of the Yongsan disaster, there is the reality of tenants being evicted without any relocation plan due to the building owner’s eviction request for redevelopment and reconstruction projects.
This is why external groups of evictees joined forces and launched an ‘illegal violent protest.’
One surviving evictee who participated in the sit-in protest committed suicide on the 10th anniversary of the disaster after serving 3 years and 9 months in prison.
This is the Yongsan disaster that ruling party leader and re-elected lawmaker Kim Seok-ki did not mention.
2023-11-27 22:44:57
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