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Members of the 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families group and its associated civic group, along with figures from Korea’s four main religious groups, lay prostrate in protest outside the National Assembly grounds on Dec. 18. (Kim Yeong-won/The Hankyoreh)

At around 9:50 am on Monday, when Seoul saw temperatures drop to minus 7 degrees C, an icy gust blew through tents set up outside the National Assembly by the families of those who died in last year’s tragic Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon.

“None of our hopes or prayers have been answered, so this cold is nothing compared to that,” said Song Hu-bong, who lost his daughter, Song Eun-ji, that fateful night. “We can withstand anything if it’s for the sake of our children, who died in vain.”

They donned knee pads and coveralls, but the frigid gusts still produced shivers. Some placed hand warmers inside their clothes. The bereaved family members braved the biting cold on Monday as they began to prostrate themselves outside the legislature to urge lawmakers to enact a special act that would allow for an independent fact-finding probe into the disaster.

At 10:29 am, members of the group 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families and its associated citizen action group, along with representatives from South Korea’s four major religions, held a press conference to announce the start of their march. The groups began their collective action aimed at passing the special act ahead of the first plenary session of the National Assembly’s extraordinary session on Wednesday.

“Only the hope that an independent investigation body created through a special act for fact-finding will uncover the truth of what happened the night of the disaster has allowed us to go on each day, though it still is a struggle,” said Lee Jeong-min, the head of operations for the bereaved families association, during the press conference. “I never would have thought that I would find myself out on the street in the same bitter cold that I felt in December of 2022.”

Lee stressed that he hoped that the special act would be passed by the ruling and opposition parties clearly and definitively in the plenary session on Wednesday.

“This is the last warning and plea of the parents who lost their children,” he said.

Members of the 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families group and its associated civic group, along with figures from Korea’s four main religious groups, hold a press conference outside the National Assembly in Seoul’s Yeouido area on Dec. 18. (Kim Yeong-won/The Hankyoreh)

“The cold wind is reminding me of the 49th-day ceremony for the tragedy,” said Yeom Mi-suk, who lost her daughter, Lee Seung-yeon. “We didn’t know then that our shouts for justice would be ignored, or that they would be prolonged to this extent.”

In Buddhist tradition, a spirit is believed to stay between death and rebirth for 49 days, making memorials held on the 49th day since death a crucial part of the mourning process.

“On the 100-day, 200-day, and one-year anniversaries, we have demonstrated our grievances through marches and ‘three steps, one bow’ actions, and the only thing that kept us going was the hope that what really happened that night would be brought to light through the enactment of a special act,” she went on. “My grief is eating me up from the inside, and drives me to take part in this prostration march.”

Religious figures also lent their support.

“Because there was no government or country at their sides, 159 people lost their lives. The bereaved families have spent a year on roads and in the cold to seek the truth,” said Kang Hyeon-wook, a cleric of the Won Buddhism Civil Society Network.

“I hope that their tearful journey will end soon,” he said, adding that he would join their prostrating march.

At around 10:50 am, more than 30 people — survivors, members of civic organizations, and religious leaders — gathered in front of the main entrance of the National Assembly. They marched 3 kilometers along the perimeter of the National Assembly grounds, repeatedly bringing their knees, elbows and foreheads to the ground in prostration.

“It is grueling, it cannot be worse than the ground my child lay on alone in death, so I’m pushing myself forward with that fact in mind,” said Oh Il-seok, who lost his son, Oh Ji-min.

Those who lost family and loved ones in the Itaewon disaster have been picketing and holding memorial services in a plaza near Itaewon Station in Seoul’s Yongsan District since declaring a “159-hour emergency action” on Dec. 14 to call for the enactment of a special act on the disaster. They plan to continue the prostration march until the plenary session of the extraordinary National Assembly begins on Wednesday.

By Kim Ga-yoon, staff reporter; Kim Yeong-won, staff reporter

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