South Korean interior minister suspended over last year’s Halloween crowd crush

South Korea's Parliament has voted to impeach the nation's interior minister Lee Sang-min over his responses to a deadly Halloween crush. This, as per Reuters, has set the stage towards making him the first cabinet member to be ousted by the legislature.As per AFP, the vote was passed 179-109.

Reuters reports that the secret ballot needed 150 votes in the 300-member chamber, where the opposition Democratic Party has a 169-seat majority.

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Lee will be suspended from duty until a ruling by the country's constitutional court.

On October 29, 159 people were killed, and another 196 were injured in a stampede in the popular Itaewon nightlife area.

The motion alleged that the interior minister "failed to take crisis prevention measures for the large crowd" event where scores of costumed partygoers, mostly women in their 20s, were killed.

It also alleged that his immediate response had contributed to the delay in the "poorly coordinated" deployment of emergency responders.

His earlier remark that additional deployment of fire and police personnel would not have prevented the disaster also invited ire.

The motion said that he not only failed "to carry out his role bestowed by the Constitution, he also breached the basic integrity demanded of senior officials with his inappropriate remarks."

However, President Yoon Suk-yeol's office called the motion a "shameful episode in parliamentary history."

(With inputs from agencies)

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