Immediately after the October 29 disaster, it was revealed that the police prepared a fake report saying, “Lee Im-jae, Yongsan Police Station, immediately arrived at the scene and ordered traffic control.” This content was contained in the ‘Seoul Metropolitan City Mobile Situation Room’ chat history obtained by MBC through the office of Congressman Jun-ho Cheon of the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Government Investigation.
◆ “Yongsan Chief, vehicle control on the spot 2 minutes after the disaster” Strange report by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency
A group chat room called ‘Mobile Situation Room’ where 266 people were invited, including the Seoul Security Bureau and the Police Autonomous Committee. About three hours after the disaster, Lee Sang-guk, head of the autonomous police department, posted a situation report from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in this chat room. The authority to approve is Inspector Jung Mo, head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s 112 Situation Team 3. He is a person being investigated as a suspect at the Special Investigation Headquarters on charges of late reporting.
If you look at the report in question, it is written at 10:17 pm, that is, 2 minutes after the disaster, the actions of Yongsan Police Chief Lee Im-jae.
“22:17 police chief arrives at the scene, orders to control vehicles on the road between Noksapyeong Station and Cheil Worldwide and to prevent security accidents to disperse the crowd”
This document was immediately reported to the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, as well as to the Security Management Office of the National Police Agency, a higher-level organization.
However, Lee Im-jae, chief of the Yongsan Police Station, arrived at the scene at 11:05 pm, 50 minutes after the disaster occurred. Chief Lee’s radio command to command the vehicle first appeared at 11:10 pm It was a completely false report.
◆ The first fake report of “traffic management in two minutes” was not presented to the National Assembly.
Immediately after the disaster, the police reported that ① “the main Yongsan Police Station arrived at the scene in two minutes,” and then, assuming this would be a problem, the next afternoon, ② “they ordered the control of the vehicle by the radio in five minutes,” and recited the contents of the report. Both are false reports.
The report in question, which first mentioned the false content of ‘traffic control instructions in two minutes’, was disseminated by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency at 1:25:12 am on the 30th. Who wrote this report under whose direction?
The National Assembly’s Special Committee on State Affairs asked the police to “submit situation reports, including regular and occasional reports received and sent by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency from the day of the disaster to the third day.” However, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency submitted a report on this matter in full.
◆ “It’s serious, it’s urgent.” Did you control the traffic?
The ‘Mobile Situation Room’ group room also includes the fact that Seoul City officials repeatedly asked the police to be put in seven times. At 11:24 pm, when the rescue operation was at its height, the officer in charge of the Security Office, who was reporting the situation on the spot, asked that “the police must be actively used to respond to the crowds at the festival.” Six minutes later, the head of the Disaster Cooperation Team asked, “Access to the ambulance needs to be ensured, and the police need to cooperate as much as possible. ”
Afterwards, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Department invited Lee Sang-guk, head of the autonomous police department, to the chat room and announced twice that “the police need to cooperate as much as possible.”
At around 11:40 pm, the head of the disaster cooperation team took a picture of the scene and announced the seriousness of the situation, saying, “It is serious, we need to cooperate with the police as much as possible to open a way to transfer to the hospital. It’s urgent.” Even after 5 minutes, he appealed, “I need to control the vehicle quickly, give me an ambulance.”
Looking at these conversations, it seems very likely that the traffic was not managed appropriately on the site at the time. The head of the Yongsan Police Station wrote a false report saying that he had ordered traffic control in two minutes, but in reality, it appears that traffic control was not properly controlled until 90 minutes after the disaster.
◆ Insufficient data submission, is the government’s investigation period sufficient?
At the request of the National Assembly, the Seoul Metropolitan Government presented the history of the ‘Mobile Situation Room’ conversation, initially presenting only the title so that the content was unknown. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon relented, saying, “Don’t submit data that is under investigation,” but eventually submitted the data at the continued request of lawmakers.
Representative Chun Jun-ho said, “I believe that the data submitted by the organizations are very sincere and actually refuse to submit the data.” If the ruling and opposition parties cannot agree on an extension to the period, the period for the government’s investigative activities now ends in two weeks.
(Data courtesy: Office of Representative Cheon Jun-ho of the Special Committee on States Affairs of the National Assembly)
