"Not a Landslide," Preliminarily Concluded… Then Should Residents Handle Recovery?

[Anchor]

Regarding the apartment accident in Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do, where one person died and two were injured due to torrential rain, the Korea Forest Service and local government have reached a preliminary conclusion that it was "not a landslide." With residents potentially having to bear the recovery costs rather than the state, they are reacting with disbelief.

Reporter Kim Minjun has the story.

[Reporter]

In the early hours of the 17th, mudslides engulfed an apartment complex in Okpo-dong, Geoje, Gyeongsangnam-do, leaving three casualties and damaging dozens of vehicles.

About 120 residents are still unable to return home. The Korea Forest Service and local government concluded that the cause of the accident should be considered a "slope failure" on private apartment property rather than a landslide.

While soil and rocks collapsing down a slope may look similar to a landslide, slope failure occurs in areas altered by human intervention, unlike landslides that happen in natural areas such as forests.

In this case as well, although it looks like a mountain at a glance, authorities state it must be classified as a slope failure because a construction company purchased and excavated the land back in 1993.

Apartment residents are dumbfounded by the news that if classified as a "man-made disaster" rather than a natural one, the responsibility for recovery principally falls on the private sector and the apartment residents rather than the state and local government.

[Nearby Resident: That is not right. That is truly not right. Anyone looking at this would call it a landslide.]

Residents were furious at the news that they might have to pay for recovery and compensation costs out of pocket if disaster relief funds and donations fall short.

[Nearby Resident: It makes no sense. It makes no sense at all. Why should the people here take responsibility for this?]

A similar accident occurred in August 2022 at an apartment complex in Sadang-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul.

Retaining walls within the complex collapsed due to soil washed down by heavy rain, but because it was not classified as a landslide, the responsibility for recovery fell on the residents.

However, after being declared a special disaster zone, the Dongjak-gu Office carried out emergency restoration work, injecting about 3.8 billion won combining national, city, and district funds so that residents did not have to bear the costs.

While the government declared Geoje and Tongyeong as special disaster zones yesterday (the 21st), the Geoje City Hall stated regarding this matter, "Administratively, it is viewed as a slope failure, but we are currently at the stage of reviewing whether to provide recovery support."

(Video by: Jung Gyeong-mun | Video Editing by: Choi Hye-ran | Design by: Lee Jun-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.