Lee Ji-hye (16 at the time of death), who died in the 1999 ‘Incheon Inhyeon-dong fire disaster’ but was excluded from compensation, will receive compensation 26 years after the disaster.

Yonhap News reported on the 11th that Jung-gu, Incheon said it would accept the Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission’s recommendation to amend the ‘Ordinance on Compensation Related to the Inhyeon-dong Fire Accident in Jung-gu, Incheon’.

Kim Jeong-heon, head of the Jung-gu District Office, said, “Recently, the Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission recommended that Jung-gu provide institutional support to restore the honor of student Lee Ji-hye, who for many years had not been included among those recognized as victims,” and added, “We will now actively step forward to wipe away their tears and restore their honor.” He said, “Such a disaster must not be repeated in this land. It is time for everyone to work so that victims can have their rights and honor restored.”

Jung-gu will begin procedures to amend the ‘Ordinance on Compensation Related to the Inhyeon-dong Fire Accident in Jung-gu, Incheon’ in coordination with relevant institutions, including the City of Incheon and the Jung-gu Council.

The disaster occurred on October 30, 1999. A fire that broke out in the basement of a commercial building in Inhyeon-dong, Jung-gu spread to a second-floor beer pub. Within 15 minutes, 55 people died at the scene and 79 suffered severe burns. The following year, Jung-gu, Incheon enacted a compensation ordinance that excluded from eligibility ‘the person who caused the fire and the perpetrator of the accident, their employees, the building owner, and those performing official duties’. Among the victims, only Lee, who had been a ‘one-day temp’, was excluded from compensation on the grounds that she was an ‘employee’. She was classified as a ‘perpetrator of the accident’.

Speaking by phone with a reporter, Kim Young-soon, the mother of Lee Ji-hye, said, “For 26 years I have lived like a sinner without being one. Even after the Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission’s recommendation, I kept my head down and waited day by day. Now I have been able to put down a bit of the burden on my heart.” Kim said, “When I later meet Ji-hye (in the next world), I am glad I will be able to say, ‘Mom resolved it. Now live with an easy mind.’”

Kim and the bereaved families’ association held a press conference after meeting with Chief Kim of Jung-gu that day.