"I Greet My Daughter in Her Empty Room Every Day"

[Anchor]

This year marks the first time we commemorate a total of 162 victims, including those who suffered psychological distress after the Itaewon crowd crush and ultimately took their own lives.

Reporter Park Se-won met with people who want to forget the memories of that day, but simply cannot.

[Reporter]

Her daughter, Sangeun, stopped aging at the age of 25 on October 29, 2022.

Her mother, Kang Seon-i, visits her empty room every day to meet her daughter.

[Kang Seon-i / Bereaved family member of the Itaewon tragedy: I hug her (daughter's picture) like this every day. I come and greet her in the morning and greet her in the evening.]

For Kang, who can no longer meet her daughter, her only wish is to clearly uncover and reveal the truth of the tragedy to her.

The Itaewon alley where the accident occurred has lost its former vitality.

Kang Gil-gyu, who runs a tailor shop in Itaewon, saw his number of stores shrink from four at their peak down to one over the past four years, but he cannot leave the workplace he has protected for over 40 years.

However, he says he wants to erase the events of four years ago from his memory.

[Kang Gil-gyu / Merchant near Itaewon Station: Because the memories come back and it is not a good memory, I don't want to talk about it.]

Fire Inspector Lee Young-seok, who was at the scene during the Itaewon tragedy, still cannot forget the colleagues who took their own lives after being deployed to the accident site.

[Fire Inspector Lee Young-seok / Seoul Gangseo Fire Station paramedic: I heard he was a cheerful officer, but when he worked with me, he seemed a bit timid and, how should I put it, struggling.]

Saying that trauma is a fate firefighters must bear, Fire Inspector Lee confessed that he also lives with a sense of guilt.

[Fire Inspector Lee Young-seok / Seoul Gangseo Fire Station paramedic: If I had started my shift (a bit earlier that day), couldn't I have saved even one or two more people?]

People who witnessed the tragedy four years ago and had to part ways with family and colleagues.

All they hope for is the recovery of an ordinary daily life.

[Kang Seon-i / Bereaved family member of the Itaewon tragedy: How to live well through this heartbreaking daily life, and finding out what I need to do...]

(Video reporting: Kim Seung-tae, Lee Sang-hak | Video editing: So Ji-hye | VJ: Lee Jun-young | Design: Seo Seung-hyeon, Byun Da-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.