Heeyoung Park, Mayor of Yongsan District, Concludes Four-Year Term with 'Itaewon Night Patrol'

Emergency Bell Tested, Instructions Given to Enhance Lighting

On the night of the past weekend, Heeyoung Park, Mayor of Yongsan District, made an appearance at the bustling Itaewon World Food Culture Street. On Friday night, the 26th, Mayor Park walked around this area to inspect the status of pedestrian safety management.

She has consistently maintained her policy of inspecting the site not only during large-scale crowd events such as Halloween or the year-end holiday season, but also on ordinary weekend nights, even as her term draws to a close.

Heeyoung Park, Mayor of Yongsan District (left), gave instructions on improvements to the disaster safety management officer during a night patrol of the Itaewon World Food Culture Street on the night of the 26th. Provided by Yongsan District.

On that day, Mayor Park personally pressed the emergency bell that is activated when crowds gather, testing its operation. Although the bell worked, the warning sound was drowned out by the surrounding noise. Mayor Park pointed out, "The warning sound is not clearly audible," and instructed on site that additional lighting, such as strobe lights, should be installed so that an emergency situation can also be visually communicated to those nearby.

Her next stop was the on-site situation room near the World Food Culture Street. Fully operational since May 2026, this location is promoted by the district office as the "first crowd management base among local governments nationwide." Inside, there is a closed-circuit (CC)TV control system to monitor crowd density in real time.

When combined with the district's duty room, integrated control center, and disaster situation room, the district office explains that a "four-layer inspection system" is in place. Safety and disaster management staff work shifts every weekend and remain on standby to respond immediately in case of an emergency. After instructing that the safety management charter and crisis response manual should always be available in the on-site situation room, Mayor Park also encouraged the staff for their hard work.

Yongsan District stated that it has gradually improved its systems to prevent a recurrence of crowd-related disasters after the 10·29 tragedy. In May 2023, the district enacted the "Yongsan District Outdoor Event Safety Management Ordinance," and in July last year, it established the "Field Response Action Manual for Multi-Crowd Disaster Situations."

Personnel and infrastructure for response have also been strengthened. Since May 2023, civil servants have been directly recruited to operate the disaster safety situation room with a 24-hour, two-person standby system. The district office also announced plans to fully expand intelligent CCTV coverage and build a smart city integrated platform and real-time smart map by the end of this year. The number of disaster safety personnel has increased from just one before the tragedy to seven currently, and since the beginning of this year, a "disaster site command bus" has been introduced and is in operation.

Mayor Heeyoung Park stated, "The safety of our residents is a duty I must uphold as mayor," adding, "I will thoroughly ensure that the field-centered safety management system that our district has worked so hard to establish operates without a single error until the very end of my term."

Heeyoung Park, Mayor of Yongsan District (left), and Yongsan District staff are inspecting the emergency bell operation status. Provided by Yongsan District.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.