[Anchor]

In Geoje, where a landslide left one person dead and two others injured, an unexpected debate over whether it even qualifies as a landslide has emerged. While the department in charge of landslides at the Geoje City Hall claims the accident was not a landslide, the building administration department argues it should be classified as one. The local government is drawing criticism for shifting responsibilities in the face of human casualties.

This is an exclusive report by reporter Cho Min-ki.

[Reporter]

This is the apartment complex in Okpo-dong, Geoje, where a resident on the first floor was killed in a landslide in the early hours of two days ago (August 17).

The mountain behind the apartment, which collapsed and engulfed the lower floors, still reveals its steep slope.

Although a retaining wall and fences to prevent falling rocks were in place, they proved useless. The narrow distance between the building and the retaining wall—barely wide enough for a single person to squeeze through—exacerbated the damage.

[Kim Jung-su / Affected Apartment Resident (Two Days Ago): Trees were crashing down and pushing forward, so I was really shocked.]

However, the landslide management department at the Geoje City Hall argued that the accident was not a landslide.

They claimed it cannot be classified as a landslide because the section from which the soil washed down is located within the apartment's land plot rather than designated forest land on the map.

[Geoje City Hall Official A: All the causal actions and such are unrelated to a landslide right now, and from our perspective, while it is a mountain, we are telling you it is the collapse of a housing retaining wall that occurred within the building site.]

The department told reporters to inquire with the apartment construction department within the same city hall, but that department stated it could not understand the stance.

They maintained that the incident must be viewed as a natural disaster and a landslide.

[Geoje City Hall Official B: From my perspective, obviously the nearby forest land collapsed together. The idea that just the building site portion cut off and collapsed—that makes no sense.]

Affected residents reacted with disbelief to the debate itself.

[Park Jong-ki / Affected Apartment Resident: It's a mountain. If it's not a mountain, what is it? Is this a field?]

Even in the "Landslide Risk Map" released by the Korea Forest Service, the area surrounding the accident site is classified as Grade 1, indicating the highest probability of a landslide occurring.

Regarding the untimely landslide debate, an official from the Korea Forest Service told SBS in response to an inquiry, "Administratively speaking, it might not be viewed as a landslide, but from the perspective of the residents and the public, it may be hard to understand."

(Video footage by Jung Kyeong-moon, Yoon Hyung, and Kang Si-woo | Video editing by Lee Sang-min | Design by Kang Yun-jung)