Police are forming a special investigation team to continue looking into the Oct. 29 Itaewon crowd crush after the joint prosecution-police investigation team ends its work.
The Korean National Police Agency said on the 30th that it has assembled a 12-member special investigation team that will begin operating on Oct. 1.
The team will be led by Senior Superintendent Kim Geun-jun, head of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. Eleven police investigators who handled the case under the former joint team will carry over to the new unit and continue the investigation.
Police plan to focus on cases inherited from the joint team while consulting with relevant agencies on setting up a joint investigation framework between the Major Crimes Investigation Agency and the national police agency. Once such a framework is established, the special team will hand over its investigative progress and related materials to link the probes.
"We will consult closely with relevant agencies on how to structure the follow-up investigative system and will continue taking the steps needed to ensure the investigation proceeds without interruption," the police agency said.
The Supreme Prosecutors' Office said the same day that it would wind up the joint team's operations in line with the revised Criminal Procedure Act taking effect on Oct. 2. The team, set up at the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office on July 30 last year at the direction of President Lee Jae-myung, operated for one year and two months.
On April 24 this year, the joint team indicted Choi Seong-beom, former chief of the Yongsan Fire Station, without detention on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. It declined to indict Lee Bong-hak, who served as on-site command team leader at the time, on the same charges.
The joint team concluded that Choi had failed to take any action despite being in a position to recognize the risk of an accident from the crowd buildup before the disaster.
In January, the joint team also indicted and detained three people, including a certified judicial scrivener, for secondary harm against victims and bereaved families of the Itaewon disaster by posting defamatory messages about them.
