▲ Park Hee-young, head of Yongsan-gu, who was arrested on charges of poor response to the Itaewon disaster and released on bail, returned to work. (yunhap news)
Seoul’s Yongsan-gu announced on the 14th that it had requested the police to deploy a riot police to prevent the Itaewon victims’ families and groups from protesting against Yongsan-gu Mayor Park Hee-young from going to work.
The district requested the Yongsan Police Station to deploy a riot police at around 9:32 a.m. on the same day, as the assembly protests were seriously interfering with the execution of official duties.
A district official explained, “From the 8th to the 13th, we did not control access to the bereaved family, civic groups, and YouTubers, but from the 14th, access was inevitably controlled for smooth performance of official duties.”
Park, who was previously arrested on charges of poor response to the Itaewon disaster and released on bail, returned to work the next day on the 8th, but on the 9th and 12th he did not go to work after taking annual leave and sick leave. Mayor Park returned to work the day before and returned to his duties.
A district official said the day before, “Mayor Park will coordinate the timing and method of meeting with the bereaved family.”