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Regarding the Itaewon disaster, it will be decided tonight (5th) at the earliest whether four police officers, including former Seoul Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae, will be arrested.

Depending on whether they are arrested or not, it seems that the direction of the upper line investigation will be determined.



This is reporter Bae Jun-woo.



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The warrant review for former Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae, which started at 2:00 p.m. today, ended in an hour and a half.



[Lee Im-jae/Former Yongsan Police Station Chief: (What part did you explain today? Just one word, please.) …

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The Seoul Western District Court is also determining whether to arrest the remaining three people, including Song Byung-joo, former head of the Yongsan Police Station 112 Situation Office, Park Seong-min, former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's information department, and Kim Jin-ho, former Yongsan Police Station information manager.



Former Chief Lee Im-jae and former Situation Chief Song Byung-joo are accused of increasing human casualties by not fulfilling their duties.



Even though a large crowd was expected before the Halloween festival, the police judged that they did not take appropriate safety measures, such as not adding additional personnel or not properly guiding the crowd.



In addition, Park Seong-min, former head of the intelligence department, and Kim Jin-ho, former head of the information department at Yongsan Police Station, are accused of ordering to delete a preliminary intelligence report that analyzed risk factors in the Itaewon area after the disaster occurred.



Whether or not to arrest them seems to be decided tonight or at the latest tomorrow morning.



Starting with them, the police are in the position that firefighting and district office managers need to secure new recruits, so today's warrant review result is expected to be a watershed in this investigation.



Along with this, the police booked three additional people today, including the head of the Yongsan Health Center and the head of the 112 Situation Team.



In the case of the head of the Yongsan Public Health Center, it is believed that the time of arrival at the site on the day of the disaster was falsely stated.



We are also considering an additional subpoena investigation into Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Kwang-ho.