South Korean Court Overturns Impeachment Linked to Crowd Crush

South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday against the impeachment of the interior minister who was ousted in February over the government’s response to a crowd surge last year that killed 159 people in Seoul.

The country’s parliament voted to impeach Lee Sang-min on the grounds he should be held responsible for the government not using effective crowd control measures and not adequately responding to the emergency that unfolded on Halloween night in 2022.

The court said Tuesday that no single person or cause could be blamed for the “disastrous incident.”

The court also cited broader failures across multiple government agencies.