"I Greet Her Every Day in Her Empty Room": The Bereaved Left Behind

[Anchor]

This year marks the first time we commemorate a total of 162 victims, including those who took their own lives after suffering psychological distress following the disaster. Not only the bereaved families, but also those who were at the scene at the time, have yet to escape from the trauma.

Reporter Park Se-won met with people living with the memories of that day.

[Reporter]

Sangeun stopped 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 disaster: I always hug (her photo) like this. I come and greet her in the morning and greet her in the evening.]

For Kang, all she wants is to clearly uncover and reveal the truth of the disaster to her daughter, whom she can no longer meet.

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

Kang Gil-gyu, who runs a tailoring shop in Itaewon, saw his stores dwindle from four at their peak to just 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: It brings back memories, and since it is not a good memory, I don't want to talk about it.]

Fire Lieutenant Lee Young-seok, who was at the scene during the Itaewon disaster, still cannot forget a colleague who took their own life after being deployed to the accident site.

[Fire Lieutenant Lee Young-seok / Seoul Gangseo Fire Station paramedic: I heard that the officer used to be cheerful, but when working with me, the officer seemed a bit timid and, how should I put it, seemed to be struggling.]

Lieutenant Lee expressed that while he believes trauma is an inescapable fate firefighters must bear, he confessed that he, too, lives with a sense of guilt.

[Fire Lieutenant Lee Young-seok / Seoul Gangseo Fire Station paramedic: If I had been on duty (from a bit earlier that day), could I have saved even one or two more people?]

People who witnessed the disaster four years ago and had to send off family members and colleagues.

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

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

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