On July 26, Chin Jung-kwon, a special professor at Kwangwoon University, shared his opinion on the Constitutional Court’s rejection of the impeachment of Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min and said, “They even replaced the person who prepared (mock) CSAT questions, but no one is taking responsibility for the disastrous incident in Itaewon where 150 people (159) died.” He argued, “Whenever a major accident occurred, previous presidents all apologized. The only one who hasn’t apologized is President Yoon Suk-yeol.”

Chin made the comment when he appeared on Park Jae-hong’s Hanpan Seungbu (single round match) on CBS radio Wednesday. Chin said, “The people knew that it was obvious the Constitutional Court would reject the impeachment. But they let it pass because he wouldn’t resign when they told him to step down. It was the last action that the people could take.”

Jang Kyung-tae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea’s Supreme Council, said, “We’ve done all we could to demand that he politically and morally resign, and we voted in favor of the impeachment because we thought there was a cause for it.” He argued, “The court can make a judgment on whether he is legally subject to administrative measures according to the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety and the State Public Officials Act, but we were holding him responsible for the incident as a minister in political service.” Jang continued and said, “They even replaced the director in charge of college admissions in the Ministry of Education because of ‘killer’ questions in the CSAT, yet nearly 160 people were crushed to death in the streets before the eyes of the world, and no one is being held responsible.”

Kim Byung-min, a member of the People Power Party’s Supreme Council, refuted, “It is not that no one is taking responsibility,” and argued, “An investigation was conducted, and the Constitutional Court decided that it cannot be seen as the sole responsibility of the minister of the interior and safety.” He added, “Whenever a particular disaster occurs, if we impeach the minister of the interior and safety claiming he is responsible for everything, then it would leave room for issues that go beyond a legal battle.”