<Anchor>
Park Hee-young, head of Yongsan-gu, who was accused of responding poorly to the Itaewon disaster, was arrested for reasons such as concerns about destroying evidence.
It is the first arrest among those involved in local governments.
This is reporter Kim Jung-woo.
<Reporter>
Yesterday (26th) around 2:00 pm, District Mayor Park Hee-young appeared at the court to review her warrant.
Mayor Park went to court without answering the flood of questions.
The key issue in the warrant review was whether local governments could be held primarily responsible for events without organizers.
It is said that Park's side argued that because it was an event without an organizer, there was no need to take precautions, and the loss of life could not be foreseen.
However, the police refuted that, based on the Disaster Safety Act, if a large crowd gathers, the local government has the primary responsibility for safety management, regardless of whether or not there is an organizer.
After more than 9 hours of review, the court issued an arrest warrant for Park-gu at around 11 o'clock last night, saying, "There is a call for criminal charges and there is a risk of destroying evidence."
The discovery of circumstances in which Mayor Park tried to destroy evidence, such as replacing his mobile phone after the disaster, also seems to have influenced the issuance of an arrest warrant.
Choi Mo, head of the disaster safety department, was also arrested.
On the night of the disaster, it was found that Mr. Choi took a taxi to the vicinity of the accident site and turned the car around to return home.
With the arrest of the mayor Park, the deputy mayor will take over the duties of the mayor for the time being.
(Video coverage: Kim Se-kyung, video editing: Yu Mira)