WARRANT SOUGHT FOR FOUR KEY SUSPECTS

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Now turning to updates into the ongoing Itaewon tragedy investigation. Four officials from the police and Yongsangu district will undergo deliberations for an arrest warrant. This includes Lee Im-jae, former chief of Yongsan Police Station and Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsangu district office. A special police team investigating the case has previously been under fire for not investigating high-ranking officials and their several warrant dismissals, but their latest warrant requests will likely be the key in testing their new strategy as they're now pushing to apply the principle of criminal negligence by joint offenders.

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Two officials from police and two from the Yongsan district office will undergo deliberations for an arrest warrant. The two police officials are Lee Im-jae, former chief of Yongsan Police Station and Song Byung-joo, former emergency hotline manager at Yongsan police station. Arrest warrant requests for both were once previously rejected. Regarding accusations of his late response on the day of the Itaewon crowd crush, Lee's defense was that he was not properly briefed about the situation. A special police team investigating the case argues they have obtained further evidence to prove otherwise. The team also slapped a new charge on Lee that he manipulated the time of his arrival on scene, which could raise the possibility of him being arrested. Among Yongsan district officials, head of the district office Park Hee-young along with safety and disaster chief Choi Won-jun will face warrant reviews. The police have stressed from the beginning of their probe that Yongsan district which oversees the Itaewon area where the disaster occurred is also responsible for what happened. In the warrant request, the police emphasized that insufficient measures taken by Park and other district officials both before and after the tragedy were the key contributing factors to loss of lives and other damage. The probe team also plans to seek arrest warrants within this week for officials at the fire department and the subway operator Seoul Metro. The Yongsan fire chief is accused of poorly commanding his force on that night while the stationmaster of Itaewon subway station is blamed for not taking steps to ensure trains pass by Itaewon station. These allegations are somewhat disputed over the unclear causal relationship which may brew controversy down the road. Several warrant requests by the probe team have been rejected so far with the exception of two people over information rigging charges, fueling criticism that the investigation is losing steam. The team now pushes to apply the principle of criminal negligence by joint offenders, meaning that the collective negligence of multiple agencies contributed to the accident. The latest warrant requests will be key to testing this new strategy. Another task the probe team faces is whether it can move up the ladder and question more higher-up officials.