“I’ve worn many ribbons expressing condolences, but this is a first. Why do we have to do this?”

Civil servants nationwide pinned black ribbons to their chest on October 31, when the government set up memorial centers to remember the victims of the Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon. But a closer look revealed that the black ribbons were not marked with the Chinese characters for “condolences (謹弔, pronounced ‘geunjo’ in Korean),” mourning the victims.

Government employees complained that they could not understand the latest guideline. In 2014, when the Sewol sank, a social disaster believed to be on par with the latest crowd crush in Itaewon, even former President Park Geun-hye wore a black ribbon with the word “condolences” written in Chinese to remember the victims. Former President Lee Myung-bak also wore the same “condolences” ribbon when a joint memorial center was set up to remember the soldiers who died on the ROKS Cheonan in 2010.

Local governments including the Jeollanam-do provincial government had prepared these “condolences ribbons.” They rushed to newly purchase plain black ribbons and handed them out to their employees. One Jeollanam-do government employee said, “We were about to use the ribbons with the word ‘condolences,’ which we had in storage, but had to urgently get plain black ribbons according to the instructions from the interior ministry.”

One local government had its employees turn the ribbons over to display the plain back side. An official at the Seoul metropolitan government said, “Plain black ribbons are hard to find,” and explained, “In the morning, we wore the ribbons displaying the letters ‘condolences,’ then after hearing the guidelines, we quickly turned the ribbons over to the other side in the afternoon.”

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on November 1, civil servants wore plain black ribbons because of government guidelines. On October 30, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety sent a notice to all central government ministries as well as metropolitan and provincial governments telling employees to “wear a black ribbon without any words printed on it.” The notice failed to mention the reason.

According to several officials from the interior ministry, the notice delivered guidelines from the Ministry of Personnel Management to the local governments. The interior ministry simply distributed a notice they also received from the personnel ministry and said they could not state the reason for the notice. Some in the interior ministry guessed that since the expression “condolences” is used when paying respects to the dead, the guideline could have taken into consideration those that were injured in the Halloween tragedy.

The Ministry of Personnel Management announced a different position, but the reason was unclear. A representative of the ministry said, “It is true that we informed civil servants to wear black ribbons without any words written on them,” and explained, “We did so because we needed to inform them of a unified standard. There was no other reason.” As for the interior ministry’s guess that the guidelines took into consideration the people who were injured, the official said, “That is not true.”

Due to the confusion, when Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon met with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo at Seoul City Hall for a meeting to discuss government responses on the evening of October 30 after the mayor returned from his business trip to Europe, Oh wore a black ribbon with the word “condolences” printed on it, while the prime minister wore a simple black ribbon.

The leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea including the leader Lee Jae-myung wore black ribbons with the Korean word “chumo (in memory of)” when they visited the joint memorial center set up in front of Noksapyeong Station in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on October 31. People Power Party lawmakers wore black ribbons with the words, “We pray for the souls of the victims of the Itaewon accident.”