SOUTH KOREA’S parliament approved legislation today mandating a new, independent investigation into a 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 159 people.

The single-chamber National Assembly passed the Bill by a 256-0 vote, which will become law after it is signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol.

The probe will delve into the root cause of the crush, details about how authorities handled it and liability. 

It also envisages the creation of a fact-finding committee with nine members that would independently examine the disaster for up to 15 months.

Once the committee determines who is responsible and who should face charges, it would report them to government investigation agencies. These would then conclude investigations into the suspects within three months.

The crush, one of the biggest peacetime disasters in South Korea, caused a nationwide outpouring of grief. The victims, who were mostly in their twenties and thirties, had gathered in Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon for Halloween celebrations.

There was anger in the aftermath of the tragedy that the government had again ignored safety and regulatory issues despite supposedly learning lessons from the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 304 people, mostly teenagers on a school trip.