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☆ Park Seo-joon joins cast of 'The Marvels,' among growing list of Korean talent joining Disney projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Korean actor Park Seo-joon will star in the upcoming superhero movie “The Marvels” to be released in July 2023. He joins a growing roster of Korean talent that is joining Disney-backed content and was one of many Korean names dropped Wednesday at a Disney content showcase in Singapore. Earlier this month, “Squid Games” star Lee Jung-jae was announced as joining Star Wars series “The Acolyte,” for Disney +. So too did Japanese director Miike Takashi, whose Korean-made series “Connect” Disney+ will upload early next month. Disney has announced plans to green-light 50 local shows in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2023 and is keen to catch up with Netflix in the scale of its Korean content roster.

Ye-jin was among 158 people who died in the disaster on narrow lane in Seoul on Oct. 29. "Children who lost their parents are orphans, but there's no word for parents who lost their children. Dressed as Princess Jasmine from the Disney animated film "Aladdin", Ye-jin had gone for the night out in the capital Seoul with two friends. Last week, some relatives of victims held a news conference demanding a government apology and a thorough investigation. Lee Ju-hee, from a collective of human rights lawyers called Minbyun, said nearly 60 families have joined a campaign for justice.

☆ U.S., Japan and South Korea vow unified response to North Korean threat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Sunday vowed a unified, coordinated response to North Korea’s threatening nuclear and ballistic missile programs, with Biden declaring that the three-way partnership is “even more important than it’s ever been” when North Korea is stepping up its provocations. Biden met separately with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol before all three sat down together on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia. The U.S. president began by offering condolences for a crowd surge during Halloween festivities in Seoul that killed more than 150 people, saying the U.S. had grieved with South Korea. Earlier this month, the South Korean military said two B-1B bombers trained with four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35 jets during the last day of “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills. North Korea responded with its own display of force, flying large numbers of warplanes inside its territory.

☆ South Korea police official found dead amid scrutiny over Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, Nov 11 (Reuters) - A South Korean police official being investigated over the deadly Halloween crush was found dead at his home in Seoul on Friday, the Yonhap news agency reported. Telephone calls by Reuters to the Yongsan station were unanswered. Jeong, 55, faced accusations that he had deleted intelligence reports warning of a serious accident, after an investigation began into police responses to the crush. Lawmakers slammed the suspected removal of the documents at a parliamentary session on Monday, and urged the arrest and punishment of those in charge. National Police Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun told lawmakers that the intelligence chief at the Yongsan station had ordered the records to be deleted and would be investigated.

☆ In Halloween crush, South Koreans see young people being failed again
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Soo Youn | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Then they placed white chrysanthemums on a memorial altar for the 156 mostly young victims of the Halloween crowd crush, and wrote condolences for scores of people who had departed this life decades too soon. Older generations, she said, failed them like they failed the costumed partygoers on Oct. 29. “Why couldn’t the police have gotten there sooner?”South Koreans across the country are asking the same questions. On Monday, Yoon apologized for the crowd crush, vowing to improve police and safety management systems and hold accountable anyone found responsible. The anti-Yoon protests have been going on for weeks with a heavy police presence, including the night of the Halloween crush, which has also angered critics, as has Yoon’s move out of the official presidential residence into a luxury apartment building.

☆ South Korea's Yoon apologises for Halloween crush, vows justice
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol holds a flower to be placed as a tribute to victims as he visits the scene of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiSEOUL, Nov 7 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol apologised on Monday for the deadly Halloween crush in Seoul, pledging to hold to account any officials found to be responsible for sloppy responses and to reform police and safety management systems. Yoon offered the apology during a meeting to review safety rules, as the country continues to mourn the crush victims. Yoon initially ascribed the authorities' poor handling to flaws in the country's crowd management and safety regulations. At Monday's safety meeting, he vowed to overhaul the national safety management system, carry out a thorough investigation and bring those responsible for failings to account.

☆ South Korea steps up monitoring in crowded subways after Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Soo-Hyang Choi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] A police officer stands guard at the exit of a subway station as people gather to pay their respects following a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo/File PhotoSEOUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) - South Korea is beefing up monitoring at crowded subway stations following a deadly Halloween crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul, officials said on Friday. It was the first Halloween event in three years virtually free of COVID-19 restrictions. Starting on Friday, police will be deployed to subway stations in the capital to join metro officials in crowd control activities, the prime minister said. Proper crowd and traffic control by the authorities could have prevented or at least reduced the surge of Halloween partygoers in alleys, experts said.

SEOUL, South Korea — The first warning came around four hours before the crush turned deadly in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood as revelers celebrated Halloween. Emergency workers aid victims of the crush in the Itaewon district of Seoul on Sunday. Two women console each other near a memorial outside a subway station in Seoul, two days after the deadly Halloween surge. Yoon said police have launched an internal probe into the officers’ handling of the emergency calls and other issues, including the on-the-spot response to the crowd surge in Itaewon that night. Noting that screams were heard over the phone, the transcript of the call says: “We are going to be crushed to death here.

☆ How Seoul crowd crush turned Halloween revelry to disaster
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

21:07 Police: Yes, Emergency report 112.Caller: Hello.Police: Yes, this is emergency report.Caller: Hello, this is Halloween street above Itaewon.Police: Yes.Caller: We’re near a bar called Meeting Square. During the festival.Police: Yes, yes.Caller: Oh, hey, hey, what's that called, it's a Halloween festival but it’s a serious situation. Oh, it's in front of the Meeting Square.Police: Yes.Caller: Yes, yes, the condition is a bit serious right now.Police: Meeting Square, Itaewon?Caller: Yes, Itaewon Station, Meeting Square.Police: Oh, yes, I understand. Yes.Caller: Yes. 22:00 Police: Emergency report 112.Caller: Ah, I want to report.

Hours later, 30-year-old Jung Joo-hee was among 156 people, most of them in their teens and twenties, killed in the South Korean capital while celebrating Halloween free of COVID restrictions for the first time in three years. Mum and dad will come see you," Jung Hae-moon said as the family stood by, together with his daughter's pet poodle. It was impossible, I couldn't believe it," Lim's father said at a funeral home as he and his family observed funeral rites. "She was so creative and pretty," the man said, adding that he had often strolled with his daughter through Itaewon. They wonder why their children were celebrating Halloween in the first place, a totally foreign concept for older Koreans.

☆ Pressure Mounts on South Korean Government and Police Over Deadly Halloween Tragedy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Timothy W. Martin | Jiyoung Sohn | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SEOUL—South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party called for the country’s national police chief and interior minister to be fired as pressure mounts over who shoulders responsibility for the deaths and injuries involving hundreds of people in a crowded Seoul alleyway. The blame game hit a new octave after police released transcripts from a series of emergency calls placed on Saturday, which warned of dangerous overcrowding on a sloping side street in Itaewon, a popular nightclub district. Some of the callers said they were afraid they could be crushed. The crowd eventually collapsed on top of itself, leading to the deaths of at least 156 people and injuries to 172 others.

☆ South Korea PM urges police to explain response to Halloween crush emergency calls
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo stand near floral tributes as they visit the scene of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiSEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - South Korea's Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said on Wednesday police will have to explain how they responded after receiving multiple emergency calls hours and minutes before a Halloween party crush killed more than 150 people in Seoul. The crush on Saturday night killed 156 and injured 151, leaving 29 in serious condition. A transcripts of emergency calls released by the police on Tuesday showed the first warning of a possible deadly crush roughly four hours before the disaster. Police received 10 other similar calls before the chaos was known to have turned fatal, according to the transcripts.

☆ Tragedy struck around the globe. Mass casualty events in South Korea, India, and Somalia left nearly 400 dead this past weekend.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Lauren Frias | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

In Seoul, South Korea, more than 150 people were killed in a crowd crush during Halloween festivities on Saturday. A woman pays tribute for the victims of the Halloween celebration stampede, on the street near the scene on October 31, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. The tragedy marks one of the worst to happen in South Korea since the Sewol ferry sank off the country's southwestern coast in 2014, taking the lives of 250 South Korean students. South Korean officials said state authorities had no safety plans in place to deal with the mass crowds that gathered during Halloween weekend. "There have been no safety management guidelines or manuals for events without an organizer," said Kim Seong-ho, head of the disaster and safety management headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, local newspaper The Hankyoreh reported.

[1/3] Police officers stand guard near the scene of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 2, 2022. REUTERS/Heo RanSEOUL, Nov 2 (Reuters) - As South Korea mourns the deaths of more than 150 people in a Halloween party crush, many people - even those not directly involved - are dealing with trauma and a search for answers that has at times blamed the victims, a psychiatry expert says. "It spread very quickly through news media and social media, leaving people directly and indirectly affected, and even those who aren't affected may feel distressed and frustrated, pretty much casting a sense of dread over the entire society," he said. The government sent a mobile clinic run by the National Center for Disaster Trauma to Itaewon, offering free counselling. "For example, when we had COVID-19 cases the first time in South Korea, there were a lot of blaming reactions like 'why did you go there?

SEOUL—At 4 a.m. on Sunday, Jung Hyeon-ji woke up to grab some water and scrolled through news about the deadly night in Seoul’s club district of Itaewon. What she saw still terrorizes her. The 21-year-old university student had taken to Twitter, where she encountered a barrage of raw footage from the cramped alleyway where hundreds of Halloween revelers were fatally crushed and severely injured. She saw police yanking people from a mound of tangled bodies. Ms. Jung said she could even make out faces—with some having turned pale or blue.

☆ After deadly Halloween crush, lost shoes await owners in Seoul
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The deadly crush in the nearby nightlife district Itaewon happened after tens of thousands gathered for Halloween celebrations Saturday evening. Most of the victims were women and many of them were missing shoes, which experts say reflects the force of a crowd surge that stripped footwear from their feet in the crush. Some 250 pairs of shoes at the gym are part of a huge collection of abandoned items found in Itaewon following the tragedy. As of Tuesday afternoon, 156 people were confirmed dead and 151 were being treated for injuries, with 29 of them in critical condition. Officials say 26 of the dead were foreign nationals, including five Iranians, four Chinese, four Russians, two Americans and two Japanese citizens.

☆ South Korea vows tough action, moving to quell anger over Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Soo-Hyang Choi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol walks at the scene where many people died and were injured in a stampede during a Halloween festival in Seoul, South Korea, October 30, 2022. The death toll from the crush at a crowded Halloween street party on Saturday climbed to 156 with 151 injured, 29 of whom were in serious condition. The country's chief security officer, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min, had said deploying more police would not have prevented the disaster. President Yoon Suk-yeol has declared a week of national mourning, saying the country had too many safety disasters. On social media, some Koreans said precautions were inadequate for an event that had been expected to draw large crowds.

[1/2] A woman pays tribute near the scene of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiSEOUL, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The initial shock from a deadly crush among Halloween party-goers in South Korea is turning into public outrage over the government's planning missteps, as business owners say police were more focused on crime and COVID than crowd safety. The crush on Saturday night killed 156 and injured 152 as revellers flooded narrow alleyways. Many South Koreans said they were in shock over how a casual night out had turned deadly. I am so sad that I can't even express my sorrow," Kim Keun-nyeo, 54, said an altar near Seoul city hall.

[1/4] Shoes belonging to victims are arranged at a gym, where recovered belongings of the victims of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities are kept, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Kim Hong-JiSEOUL, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A temporary morgue for some of the people killed in South Korea's Halloween party crush is now a huge lost-and-found, where hundreds of items such as a "Happy Halloween" backpack and a Minnie Mouse hairband await their owners. The Wonhyoro sports centre was quiet on Tuesday, three days after the crush in the popular Itaewon district during Halloween festivities, as a few people sifted through more than 800 recovered lost items. One survivor of the crush walked through the items looking for her bag, her left leg in a cast from her injury that night. read moreThe death toll is 156 with 151 injured, 29 of whom were in serious condition.

☆ Emergency calls reveal growing desperation before South Korea Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Soo-Hyang Choi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] A police officer stands guard near floral tributes at the scene of a crowd crush that happened during Halloween festivities, in Seoul, South Korea, November 1, 2022. The transcripts of emergency calls released by the police showed the first warning of a possible deadly surge was made at 6:34 p.m. on Saturday, roughly four hours before the crush turned deadly. The transcripts, released to media, give a chilling prediction of how the tragedy would unfold. Police received 10 other similar calls before the chaos was known to have turned fatal - and released all those transcripts on Tuesday. "The police will speedily and rigorously conduct intensive inspections and investigation on all aspects without exception to explain the truth of this accident," police commissioner Yoon told a news conference earlier.

Seoul, South Korea CNN —ln a cavernous Seoul gymnasium Tuesday, grieving families inspected neat rows of belongings left behind at the scene of the deadly street crush in Itaewon. Another younger woman, wearing a cast on her left arm, walked into the gymnasium to find her lost shoe. This woman, who didn’t want to be named, said she was in front of a bar in the alley when the crush happened. Police walk among personal belongings retrieved from the scene of a fatal Halloween crowd surge. Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty ImagesOn Tuesday, South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said a “lack of institutional knowledge and consideration for crowd management” was partly to blame for the crowd crush.

SEOUL—South Korean police are investigating the circumstances that led to a crowd crush in Seoul on Saturday night, including the possibility that some individuals intentionally pushed the crowd forward, as the public seeks answers in the wake of a tragedy that left more than 150 dead. Some 44 witnesses and injured survivors are being questioned about the accident in the Itaewon district, an official for South Korea’s National Police Agency said on Monday. Police are also combing through footage from dozens of security cameras and on social media to help determine how the incident may have occurred, the official said Monday.

SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government will conduct a thorough investigation into the Halloween crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in the capital over the weekend, officials said Monday, as the country mourned its worst disaster in years. Tens of thousands of people had gathered on Saturday in Itaewon, a nightlife district of Seoul that is popular with foreigners, when a crowd surge began in a sloped and narrow alleyway, setting off a deadly panic. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pays tribute in front of City Hall in Seoul on Monday. The crowd surge is the country’s deadliest peacetime accident since the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry. Stella Kim and Thomas Maresca reported from Seoul, and Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong.

☆ Death toll in India bridge collapse rises to at least 132
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The bridge had been closed for renovation for almost six months and was reopened just four days ago. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were on the 761-foot-long bridge, but officials fear the death toll could rise. State minister Harsh Sanghvi told reporters that 132 people had died so far and many were admitted to hospitals in critical condition. Rescuers search the Machchu river in the Indian state of Gujarat on Monday after a cable suspension bridge collapsed, sending hundreds of people plunging into the water. The bridge collapse is Asia’s third major disaster involving large crowds in a month.

☆ South Korea vows thorough investigation into deadly Halloween crush
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SEOUL, Oct 31 (Reuters) - South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday promised a thorough investigation into the Halloween crush over the weekend that killed more than 150 mostly young people in the capital, plunging the country into mourning. Officials said 154 had been killed and 149 injured, with 33 people in serious condition. Tens of thousands of partiers had crowded into narrow streets and alleyways of Seoul's popular Itaewon district on Saturday for the first virtually unrestricted Halloween festivities in three years. But chaos erupted when people poured into one particularly narrow and sloping alley, even after it was already packed, witnesses said. "We will do our best to provide necessary support by reflecting the opinions of the bereaved families as much as possible."

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