My latest Korea Times article examines a series of fires which took place in Seoul in the early 1970s, culminating in the Daewang Corner fire of November 3, 1974, in which 88 people - mostly young people at a go-go club that was operating illegally after hours - were killed in the blaze.
The newspaper descriptions of unidentified victims made for sobering reading, while articles in the weekly magazines, with their clear aim of denouncing decadence and blaming the victims, are far more infuriating. In three articles spread over eight pages of 주간여성 (Weekly Woman)'s November 17 issue, the magazine ignored the fact that people had continued dancing because they were unaware of the fire and twisted this into the headline, "Even if I burn to death, I'm going to dance."
Should parallels with a more recent tragedy become apparent, that's not accidental.