Lee regrets Japanese deaths

President Lee Myung-bak sent a personal letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama yesterday to express his regret and condolence over the deaths of seven Japanese tourists in a fire on Saturday, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Ten people were killed and six others were critically injured in the blaze in an indoor shooting range in the southern port city of Busan.

The government is responding swiftly to the tragedy, which is threatening to tarnish Korea`s image abroad and dampen its tourism industry.

"I once again express my deep regret and offer my sincere condolence to the victims and their families," Lee said in the letter.

He promised that Seoul will conduct a thorough investigation and take measures to support the victims and prevent any recurrence.

Earlier in the day, Lee ordered his senior secretaries to take measures to improve the country`s safety standards.

His aides said Lee had already apologized to Hatoyama when they were attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore over the weekend. The Japanese leader asked for a prompt follow-up on the incident, they added.

The Foreign Ministry also expressed regret. "We regret that several Japanese nationals, along with our own citizens, were killed or injured in the accident," said a ministry spokesman.

The ministry contacted the Japanese Embassy in Seoul upon hearing the news and sent out officials to Busan to take care of the aftermath, said the spokesman.

Other high-ranking government officials - Prime Minister Chung Un-chan, Public Administration and Security Minister Lee Dal-gon and National Police Agency chief Kang Hee-rak - hurried off to the scene.

Culture Minister Yu In-chon issued an official statement of apology.

The Japanese government and media expressed appreciation for the sincerity of the Korean government, but nevertheless pointed out that safety levels were sub-standard.

A five-story building in a Busan marketplace was engulfed in a sudden blaze following a loud blast at around 1:26 p.m. on Saturday, according to witnesses. On the second floor was an indoor shooting range, a tourist spot which had recently become very popular among Japanese visitors.

The 10 victims died on the scene from burns and six more, three of them Japanese, were injured and taken to nearby hospitals.

The death toll may possibly rise as the injuries are critical, said the police.

The tourists had come from the Japanese town of Nagasaki to the port city earlier that day for a two-day school reunion trip.

Some 37 distressed family members of the Japanese victims arrived in Busan to verify their identities.

Meanwhile, the police are struggling to find the exact cause of the fire.

"One of the possibilities is that there might have been an explosion caused by leftover gunpowder and cigarette smoke," said a police official.

One of the injured Japanese visitors said during the police investigation that he had heard the sound of an explosion just before the fire broke out.

The Busan Police Station will hold a briefing today on the investigation results.

(tellme@heraldm.com)

By Bae Hyun-jung

2009.11.17

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