South Korea has higher ups that don’t seem to care for the civilians, their own people. Of course all countries have issues with higher ranking officials, no one is expecting their country to be flawless; however, the South Korean entities have a tendency to ignore significant events and disasters.
After World War 2 ended, South Korea responded badly to the rebuilding of the destruction caused during the war, which was to be expected since they had very limited access to resources and political stability. Ever since then, they had some cases here and there when they were unable to lend a helping hand. We don’t know the full extent of those cases back in the day since the media was not a huge deal. Now, there is a wide range of media sources like TV, newspapers, phones, books, etc. which allows us to watch these cases unfold. This also means that we are able to get more information about the whys and how these things happen.
In 1995, the Sampoong Department Store collapsed. 20 seconds was all the customers had to get out, to run, to make it out alive. The five story building now looked like a one story building, it was pancaked. There were an estimated 1,400 people in that department store when it came crashing down and only 898 would be able to breathe again. South Korean citizens were angered. At first, they thought it was an attack from North Korea but soon after, they started hearing rumors that the building was not built properly. Lee Joon, the man who ordered this department store to be made began getting swarmed with questions on why his building went down after only six years of being built. It was later outed to the public that he was extremely negligent towards the department store and ignored signs of the collapse (i.e. a table-sized hole on the ceilings, cracks on the ceilings, the floor being tilted sideways, and the workers complaining of loud creaking). He was soon arrested and was sentenced to only ten years in prison, which was later reduced to seven years.
April 16, 2014 was going to be the best day of these 325 High Schools students lives. They were going on a field trip on this huge ferry down to Jeju Island along with 125 other passengers going on vacation. Then, they hear the intercom going off. Hierarchy is a big thing in South Korea, it is drilled into your head to always listen to elders. So, when the students on board heard the automated voice intercom state to “stay put” and to “hold onto something nearby” they did just that. They were told to stay put while the ship was sinking. When the higher ups were told about this, they arrived at the scene and did nothing. They sat around for a while and they noticed someone on the deck. It was the crew captain disguised as a passenger, and when he was rescued he didn’t tell them who he was. During the sinking of the ferry which lasted about a day, the President had been MIA. No one could figure out where she had been amidst all of this chaos. She later made a fake schedule to explain where she had been, but the public did not believe it for a second. The people that tried to save as many students as they could, were the civilian divers and fishermen. South Korea denied the assistance from the US twice, even though they had a vessel nearby with helicopters, landing pads, and 1,000 marines which are trained in similar cases like this one. It was estimated that if the intercom had not been telling the students to stay put, they would have gotten curious and went out on the deck where they would’ve been visible to be saved by civilians. South Korea did not manage to recover the ferry until 2017, three years after the sinking.
2022 was the first year the COVID ban was lifted in South Korea, and it was two days before Halloween. It’s known that if you were to have a party during Halloween, especially after COVID, it would have to be in Itaewon. The city had a meeting where they mentioned that there would be an estimated 100,000 people showing up that night. The Itaewon Police Chief ignored this, and didn’t put any police officers in the area. How do people get to and from Itaewon’s World Street Center where all the bars were? The subway. Where did the subway drop them off? A little street that would take them right to the Street Center which was only 45 feet wide and sloped downward. Throughout the night police received 80 calls before the incident explaining to them that they felt like they were getting crushed and that people were going to die. Police ignored the calls. The President called the Police Chief since he had heard what was going on and he ignored his call and continued eating with his coworkers. After a few hours, he decided to go check it out from the rooftop before taking any action. 159 people died and 196 were severely injured. There were people stacked 13 feet high since the street was sloping down.
So far, it seems like South Korea has not been putting the lives of their citizens in high regard. It seems as though they lack the care and compassion for the future generation. The next generation seems adamant on changing the way the system works, and I can’t wait to see the changes.
