Opposition party demands Yoon clarify comments on Itaewon tragedy

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) urged President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday to clarify his remarks regarding the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush after a former National Assembly speaker quoted him as suggesting the tragedy may have been manipulated. In his memoir revealed last week, former Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said he had a one-on-one meeting with Yoon in December 2022, during which he recommended the president fire Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the disaster that killed 159 people in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood in October of that year. According to Kim, Yoon responded that he could not make a decision regarding Lee because of the possibility the incident had been plotted and manipulated by "certain forces." "Is this a country? Is this the president? Should we leave things as they are?" DP Rep. Seo Young-kyo said during a party Supreme Council meeting. "The president must tell us what he said." Seo dismissed the presidential office's response to Kim's claims, which accused the former speaker o f distorting the conversation. "The president should step forward and tell us whether he made those remarks or not," she said. DP Rep. Jang Kyung-tae echoed her remarks, saying the presidential office's explanation is not needed at a time when "allegations have continually been raised that the president is an avid watcher of far-right YouTube channels." "President Yoon should make the clarification himself," he said. At a parliamentary steering committee session later in the day, presidential officials were asked to address the claims in the memoir. Lee Do-woon, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said Yoon "never made such remarks" and instructed officials to investigate all the allegations surrounding the disaster. Source: Yonhap News Agency