South Korea Holds First Official Memorial for Itaewon Crowd Crush Tragedy as Audit Exposes More Details
South Korea held the first official memorial service for the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush tragedy on October 29, 2025, marking the third anniversary of the disaster that claimed 159 lives. The government invited the families of foreign and Korean victims to join government officials, civic groups, and members of the public at Gwanghwamun Square for the occasion, with roughly 800 people in attendance. Sirens sounded at 10:29 a.m. to mark the date of the tragedy, followed by a moment of silence. President Lee Jae Myung, attending the APEC summit in Gyeongju, delivered a video tribute in which he bowed twice in apology and acknowledged the state’s failure to protect its citizens.
The ceremony came shortly after the release of a government audit conducted by the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC), the National Police Agency, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Published in late October 2025, the audit attributed part of the crowd control failure to the relocation of the presidential office from the Blue House to Yongsan under former President Yoon Suk-yeol. The move, the report found, concentrated police resources around the new compound due to frequent rallies and protests, reducing the number of available officers for crowd control in Itaewon. It also revealed that while Yongsan Police had established Halloween safety plans in 2020 and 2021, no such plan was made in 2022.
The audit concluded that 62 state officials bore responsibility for the failures, although only nine had faced disciplinary action to date. The government announced it would seek disciplinary measures for all 62 police, city, and district officials. Launched in July at the request of bereaved families and directive of the president, the audit marked the first government-led investigation to examine the full chain of events, from prevention and response to post-incident handling, before the statute of limitations on disciplinary action expires.
The audit coincided with President Lee’s directive, just one month into office in July 2025, to establish a new investigative team led by prosecutors and police to re-examine the Itaewon tragedy. Approximately 20 personnel were assigned to the joint investigation, headed by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office. Families had long argued that an independent commission formed in September 2023 lacked sufficient authority and access to necessary records. The new joint team was created to thoroughly reassess the causes, emergency response, government actions, and ongoing impacts on survivors and bereaved families.
This article was written for The Sejong Society of Washington, D.C. and published on November 6, 2025, in the Sejong Society’s newsletter, Sejong Digest 2.0. You can subscribe to the newsletter here: https://thesejongsociety.org/