71-656: On June 29, 1995, the Sampoong Department Store ( Korean : 삼풍백화점 ; Hanja : 三豐百貨店) in Seoul, South Korea , collapsed due to a structural failure . The collapse killed 502 people and injured 937, making it the largest peacetime disaster in South Korean history . It was the deadliest non-deliberate modern building collapse until the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. Construction on
142-511: A flat-slab building design. On December 27, 1995, Lee Joon was convicted of criminal negligence and sentenced to 10 years and 6 months imprisonment. His sentence was later lessened to 7 years and 6 months on appeal. His son, Lee Han-sang, was convicted of corruption and accidental homicide and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. Additionally, two city planners from the Seocho District of Seoul were convicted of taking bribes . In
213-484: A Korean influence on Khitan. The hypothesis that Korean could be related to Japanese has had some supporters due to some overlap in vocabulary and similar grammatical features that have been elaborated upon by such researchers as Samuel E. Martin and Roy Andrew Miller . Sergei Starostin (1991) found about 25% of potential cognates in the Japanese–Korean 100-word Swadesh list . Some linguists concerned with
284-480: A core vowel. The IPA symbol ⟨ ◌͈ ⟩ ( U+0348 ◌͈ COMBINING DOUBLE VERTICAL LINE BELOW ) is used to denote the tensed consonants /p͈/, /t͈/, /k͈/, /t͡ɕ͈/, /s͈/ . Its official use in the extensions to the IPA is for "strong" articulation, but is used in the literature for faucalized voice . The Korean consonants also have elements of stiff voice , but it is not yet known how typical this
355-422: A large department store . This involved cutting away a number of support columns to install escalators and the addition of a fifth floor (originally meant as a roller skating rink but later changed to a food court ). Woosung refused to carry out these changes due to serious structural concerns. In response, Lee Joon fired them and used his own company to complete the store's construction instead. The building
426-545: A later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families. Since the establishment of two independent governments, North–South differences have developed in standard Korean, including variations in pronunciation and vocabulary chosen. However, these minor differences can be found in any of the Korean dialects , which are still largely mutually intelligible . The Chinese language , written with Chinese characters and read with Sino-Xenic pronunciations ,
497-514: A number of the store's executives and the company responsible for completing the building. At first, families of the victims were asking for an average of $ 250,000 each. However, the City of Seoul, representing the store's owner, offered to pay $ 220,000 for each victim, arguing that he could not afford to pay more. Two months after the collapse, Lee Joon and Lee Han-sang submitted a jointly-signed memo to Seoul, offering their entire wealth to compensate
568-574: A possible relationship.) Hudson & Robbeets (2020) suggested that there are traces of a pre- Nivkh substratum in Korean. According to the hypothesis, ancestral varieties of Nivkh (also known as Amuric ) were once distributed on the Korean Peninsula before the arrival of Koreanic speakers. Korean syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), consisting of an optional onset consonant, glide /j, w, ɰ/ and final coda /p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, l/ surrounding
639-457: A substandard concrete mix of cement and seawater and poorly- reinforced concrete was used for the ceilings and walls. Further investigation revealed that the building was built with incorrect application of a technique called " flat slab construction ". Reinforced concrete buildings are often built by using columns and beams, with the floor slab supported over the full length of the beams. "Flat slab construction" does not use beams but supports
710-619: Is also generated by longstanding alliances, military involvement, and diplomacy, such as between South Korea–United States and China–North Korea since the end of World War II and the Korean War . Along with other languages such as Chinese and Arabic , Korean is ranked at the top difficulty level for English speakers by the United States Department of Defense . Modern Korean descends from Middle Korean , which in turn descends from Old Korean , which descends from
781-656: Is an agglutinative language . The Korean language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech . Modifiers generally precede the modified words, and in the case of verb modifiers, can be serially appended. The sentence structure or basic form of a Korean sentence is subject–object–verb (SOV), but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages. Question 가게에 gage-e store- LOC 가셨어요? ga-syeo-sseo-yo go- HON . PAST - CONJ - POL 가게에 가셨어요? gage-e ga-syeo-sseo-yo store-LOC go-HON.PAST-CONJ-POL 'Did [you] go to
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#1732775713240852-511: Is closer to a near-open central vowel ( [ɐ] ), though ⟨a⟩ is still used for tradition. Grammatical morphemes may change shape depending on the preceding sounds. Examples include -eun/-neun ( -은/-는 ) and -i/-ga ( -이/-가 ). Sometimes sounds may be inserted instead. Examples include -eul/-reul ( -을/-를 ), -euro/-ro ( -으로/-로 ), -eseo/-seo ( -에서/-서 ), -ideunji/-deunji ( -이든지/-든지 ) and -iya/-ya ( -이야/-야 ). Some verbs may also change shape morphophonemically. Korean
923-476: Is likely that Koreans used water clocks to keep time prior to this invention, but no concrete records of them exist. In 1437, Jang Yeong-sil, with Jeong Cho, created a bowl-shaped sundial called the angbu ilgu ( 앙부일구 ), which King Sejong had placed in public so anyone could use it. Geographically, the western parts of Korea , including the South Korean capital city, Seoul , are GMT+08:00 . In 1908,
994-399: Is mainly reserved for specific circumstances such as newspapers, scholarly papers and disambiguation. Today Hanja is largely unused in everyday life but is still important for historical and linguistic studies. The Korean names for the language are based on the names for Korea used in both South Korea and North Korea. The English word "Korean" is derived from Goryeo , which is thought to be
1065-399: Is of faucalized consonants. They are produced with a partially constricted glottis and additional subglottal pressure in addition to tense vocal tract walls, laryngeal lowering, or other expansion of the larynx. /s/ is aspirated [sʰ] and becomes an alveolo-palatal [ɕʰ] before [j] or [i] for most speakers (but see North–South differences in the Korean language ). This occurs with
1136-544: Is the native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the national language of both North Korea and South Korea . Beyond Korea, the language is recognized as a minority language in parts of China , namely Jilin , and specifically Yanbian Prefecture , and Changbai County . It is also spoken by Sakhalin Koreans in parts of Sakhalin , the Russian island just north of Japan, and by
1207-747: Is well attested in Western Old Japanese and Northern Ryukyuan languages , in Eastern Old Japanese it only occurs in compounds, and it is only present in three dialects of the Southern Ryukyuan language group . Also, the doublet wo meaning "hemp" is attested in Western Old Japanese and Southern Ryukyuan languages. It is thus plausible to assume a borrowed term. (See Classification of the Japonic languages or Comparison of Japanese and Korean for further details on
1278-521: The Koryo-saram in parts of Central Asia . The language has a few extinct relatives which—along with the Jeju language (Jejuan) of Jeju Island and Korean itself—form the compact Koreanic language family . Even so, Jejuan and Korean are not mutually intelligible . The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in contemporary Manchuria . The hierarchy of the society from which
1349-527: The yangban aristocracy, who looked down upon it too easy to learn. However, it gained widespread use among the common class and was widely used to print popular novels which were enjoyed by the common class. Since few people could understand official documents written in classical Chinese, Korean kings sometimes released public notices entirely written in Hangul as early as the 16th century for all Korean classes, including uneducated peasants and slaves. By
1420-589: The Korean Empire adopted a standard time , GMT+08:30. In 1912, during the Japanese occupation of Korea , the Governor-General of Korea changed standard time to GMT+09:00 to align with Japan Standard Time . However, in 1954, the South Korean government under President Syngman Rhee reverted the standard time to GMT+08:30. Then in 1961, under the military government of President Park Chung-hee ,
1491-589: The Proto-Koreanic language , which is generally suggested to have its linguistic homeland somewhere in Manchuria . Whitman (2012) suggests that the proto-Koreans, already present in northern Korea, expanded into the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and
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#17327757132401562-568: The Three Kingdoms of Korea (not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula), while " -eo " and " -mal " mean "language" and "speech", respectively. Korean is also simply referred to as guk-eo , literally "national language". This name is based on the same Han characters ( 國語 "nation" + "language") that are also used in Taiwan and Japan to refer to their respective national languages. In North Korea and China ,
1633-447: The load across the floors. To maximise the floor space, Lee Joon ordered the floor columns to be reduced to be 60 cm (24 in) thick, instead of the minimum of 80 cm (31 in) in the original blueprint that was required for the building to stand safely, and the columns were spaced 11 metres (36 ft) apart to maximize retail space, a decision that meant that there was more load on each column than there would have been if
1704-889: The 17th century, the yangban had exchanged Hangul letters with slaves, which suggests a high literacy rate of Hangul during the Joseon era. In the context of growing Korean nationalism in the 19th century, the Gabo Reform of 1894 abolished the Confucian examinations and decreed that government documents would be issued in Hangul instead of literary Chinese. Some newspapers were published entirely in Hangul, but other publications used Korean mixed script , with Hanja for Sino-Korean vocabulary and Hangul for other elements. North Korea abolished Hanja in writing in 1949, but continues to teach them in schools. Their usage in South Korea
1775-412: The 1980s, and it resulted in a review of South Korean safety regulations; the disaster also revealed the level of corruption and greed among city officials, who were willing to accept bribes with little regard for public safety. Following the Sampoong Department Store collapse, inspectors identified key factors contributing to the disaster: Over five years, these issues weakened the structure, leading to
1846-408: The 20th century. The script uses 24 basic letters ( jamo ) and 27 complex letters formed from the basic ones. When first recorded in historical texts, Korean was only a spoken language . Since the turn of the 21st century, aspects of Korean culture have spread to other countries through globalization and cultural exports . As such, interest in Korean language acquisition (as a foreign language )
1917-400: The Sampoong Department Store in 1987 over a tract of land in the Seocho District previously used as a landfill . The building's plans originally called for a residential apartment building with four floors to be built by Woosung Construction. However, during construction, the blueprints were changed by the future chairman of Sampoong Group's construction division, Lee Joon, to instead create
1988-549: The Seochu District government, forcing the Seoul Metropolitan Government to mediate the dispute. In a controversial move, the memorial was built elsewhere and the land sold off to a private developer. The site of the collapse is now home to a luxury apartment complex, Acrovista Apartments, whose construction began in 2001 and was completed in 2004. The incumbent Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol
2059-455: The beginnings of words. /l/ becomes alveolar flap [ɾ] between vowels, and [l] or [ɭ] at the end of a syllable or next to another /l/ . A written syllable-final ' ㄹ ', when followed by a vowel or a glide ( i.e. , when the next character starts with ' ㅇ '), migrates to the next syllable and thus becomes [ɾ] . Traditionally, /l/ was disallowed at the beginning of a word. It disappeared before [j] , and otherwise became /n/ . However,
2130-419: The building's main columns (which had been weakened by the installation of the escalators) failed, followed by all the columns in the south wing. The store's south wing then collapsed completely into the basement, killing 502 people and trapping more than 1,500 inside. The disaster resulted in property damage totaling about ₩270 billion (about US$ 206 million). Rescue crews were on the scene within minutes of
2201-446: The collapse, known as the "trigger" or tipping point, in the building's history. It was revealed that two years before the collapse, the building's three rooftop air-conditioning units had been moved because of noise complaints from neighbors on the east side of the building. The building's managers admitted noticing cracks in the roof during the move, but instead of lifting them with a crane, the units were put on rollers and dragged across
Sampoong Department Store collapse - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-459: The collapse, leaking gas was suspected as the probable cause because two gas explosions had occurred elsewhere in Seoul that year. However, the fires in the rubble were from burning automotive gasoline coming from crushed cars parked in the underground garage, and a gas explosion would have been significantly larger. It was also widely feared that there had been a terrorist attack, with North Korea as
2343-426: The columns had been closer together. The fifth-story restaurant floor had a heated concrete base referred to as ondol , which has hot water pipes going through it; the presence of the 1.2-metre-thick (4 ft) ondol greatly increased the weight and thickness of the slab. The store's three 15-tonne air conditioning units were installed on the roof leading to a greater structural strain. The air conditioning
2414-495: The concrete was 8, not the required 16, which gave the building only half its needed strength. Steel reinforcements intended to strengthen the concrete floor were placed 10 cm from the top instead of 5 cm, decreasing the structure's strength by about another 20%. Fire shields were installed around all escalators to prevent the spread of fire from floor to floor, but to install them, the support columns were cut, further reducing their diameter. The reduced diameter concentrated
2485-400: The construction industry. These measures aimed to prevent future disasters and restore public confidence in the safety of South Korea's buildings and infrastructure. The remains of the store were demolished shortly after the collapse and the recovery operations; the site remained vacant until 2000. The families of the victims requested that a memorial be built on the site, but it was opposed by
2556-501: The cracks, over the course of two years. On the day of the collapse, although the units were shut off, it was too late, the structure had suffered irreversible damage, and the fifth floor slab around column 5E finally gave way. During his interrogation with Professor Chung, Lee Joon sparked further controversy by saying that his main concern was that the collapse of the store not only harmed the customers, but also inflicted great financial damage to his company. On December 27, 1995, Lee Joon
2627-401: The disaster, with cranes and other heavy equipment being brought in the next day. However, Seoul's mayor, Choi Pyong-yol, announced the rescue would be called off due to concerns that the unstable remains of the store would collapse. After massive protests, especially from friends and relatives of those still missing, Choi and officials agreed to continue looking for survivors, with the remains of
2698-515: The events leading up to the 1988 Summer Olympics , there was a large development boom in the Seoul Capital Area . Because of bans against international construction contractors signing contracts for projects in Seoul at the time, almost all buildings were being erected by South Korean companies, which typically built the structures quickly because of the large number of projects assigned to them. The Sampoong Group began construction of
2769-572: The families of the victims. As a result, the Sampoong Group ceased to exist. The settlement involved 3,293 cases, totaling ₩375.8 billion (about $ 300 million). Payouts were complete by 2003. The initial reaction of the disaster was an enormous public outrage that led to months of public demonstrations on the streets of Seoul. The disaster led to skepticism and fears regarding safety standards on other engineering projects undertaken as South Korea had experienced an economic boom during
2840-450: The fifth floor. Fifty-seven minutes before the collapse, the store was packed with hundreds of shoppers, but still, Lee Joon did not close the store or attempt any repairs. At about 5:52 p.m., cracking sounds could be heard and workers began to sound alarms and evacuate the building, but it was too late. The roof gave way and the air conditioning units crashed onto the overloaded fifth floor which then gave way. In less than twenty seconds,
2911-399: The first Korean dynasty known to Western nations. Korean people in the former USSR refer to themselves as Koryo-saram or Koryo-in (literally, " Koryo/Goryeo persons"), and call the language Koryo-mal' . Some older English sources also use the spelling "Corea" to refer to the nation, and its inflected form for the language, culture and people, "Korea" becoming more popular in
Sampoong Department Store collapse - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-405: The floor slab directly on the columns. The area of floor around the columns must be reinforced in order to carry the load; if the columns are too narrow, they can punch through the slab. Examination of the building showed the concrete columns installed were only 60 cm in diameter, below the required 80 cm shown in the plans. Worse still, the number of steel reinforcement bars embedded into
3053-479: The inflow of western loanwords changed the trend, and now word-initial /l/ (mostly from English loanwords) are pronounced as a free variation of either [ɾ] or [l] . All obstruents (plosives, affricates, fricatives) at the end of a word are pronounced with no audible release , [p̚, t̚, k̚] . Plosive sounds /p, t, k/ become nasals [m, n, ŋ] before nasal sounds. Hangul spelling does not reflect these assimilatory pronunciation rules, but rather maintains
3124-408: The issue between Japanese and Korean, including Alexander Vovin, have argued that the indicated similarities are not due to any genetic relationship , but rather to a sprachbund effect and heavy borrowing, especially from Ancient Korean into Western Old Japanese . A good example might be Middle Korean sàm and Japanese asá , meaning " hemp ". This word seems to be a cognate, but although it
3195-577: The language is most often called Joseon-mal , or more formally, Joseon-o . This is taken from the North Korean name for Korea (Joseon), a name retained from the Joseon dynasty until the proclamation of the Korean Empire , which in turn was annexed by the Empire of Japan . In mainland China , following the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea in 1992, the term Cháoxiǎnyǔ or
3266-472: The language originates deeply influences the language, leading to a system of speech levels and honorifics indicative of the formality of any given situation. Modern Korean is written in the Korean script ( 한글 ; Hangeul in South Korea, 조선글 ; Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea), a system developed during the 15th century for that purpose, although it did not become the primary script until
3337-455: The late 1800s. In South Korea the Korean language is referred to by many names including hanguk-eo ("Korean language"), hanguk-mal ("Korean speech") and uri-mal ("our language"); " hanguk " is taken from the name of the Korean Empire ( 대한제국 ; 大韓帝國 ; Daehan Jeguk ). The " han " ( 韓 ) in Hanguk and Daehan Jeguk is derived from Samhan , in reference to
3408-415: The load on a smaller area of the slab, leading to an eventual puncturing of it. Those factors, along with the addition of a fifth floor including restaurants and heavy restaurant equipment, all contributed to the building's eventual failure. The final design had less than half of the required strength but despite this managed to stand for almost five years. Investigators finally pinpointed the direct cause of
3479-461: The ones supporting lower floors, thus causing the load of the fifth floor to be transferred through the slab. In April 1995, cracks began to appear in the ceiling of the fifth floor in the south wing, but the only response by Lee Joon and staff management was to move merchandise and stores from the top floor to the basement. On the morning of June 29, the number of cracks in the area increased dramatically, prompting store management to close parts of
3550-515: The population was illiterate. In the 15th century King Sejong the Great personally developed an alphabetic featural writing system , known today as Hangul , to promote literacy among the common people. Introduced in the document Hunminjeongeum , it was called eonmun ('colloquial script') and quickly spread nationwide to increase literacy in Korea. The Korean alphabet was denounced by
3621-422: The prime suspect. However, the fact the building collapsed downward, with little debris thrown outward, ruled out a significant explosion, according to South Korean and American experts. Once the investigation focused on structural failure, it was initially believed the building's poorly-laid foundation and the unstable ground that it was built on, both led to the failure. Investigation of the rubble revealed that
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#17327757132403692-486: The rain and from the water used for fire suppression. The collapse killed 502 people and injured about 937 people. About 1,500 people were trapped inside the structure. Rescue attempts lasted over the course of many days leading to the rescue of a few survivors, including two that were pulled from the wreckage after a week. The investigation of the collapse was headed by Professor Chung Lan ( Korean : 정란, Hanja : 鄭鑾) of Dankook University 's engineering school. Shortly after
3763-432: The roof, further destabilizing the surface by each unit's immense weight. Cracks formed in the roof slabs and the main support columns were forced downward. Column 5E took a direct hit, forming cracks at the position connected to the fifth-floor restaurants. According to survivor accounts, each time the air conditioners were switched on, the vibrations radiated through the cracks, reaching the supporting columns and widening
3834-632: The shear failure of slabs around key pillars, resulting in the building's total collapse. The disaster spurred significant reforms in South Korea's construction industry, leading to comprehensive changes in building standards and legislation to prevent future tragedies. Several new laws were enacted to enhance building safety and accountability: The disaster was a pivotal event that led to significant reforms in South Korea's building standards and regulatory practices. The new laws and regulations were designed to enhance building safety, improve structural integrity, and ensure greater accountability and transparency in
3905-669: The short form Cháoyǔ has normally been used to refer to the standard language of North Korea and Yanbian , whereas Hánguóyǔ or the short form Hányǔ is used to refer to the standard language of South Korea. Korean is a member of the Koreanic family along with the Jeju language . Some linguists have included it in the Altaic family, but the core Altaic proposal itself has lost most of its prior support. The Khitan language has several vocabulary items similar to Korean that are not found in other Mongolian or Tungusic languages, suggesting
3976-467: The slab in one of the fifth-floor restaurants only hours before the collapse. Five hours before the collapse, the first of several loud bangs was heard emanating from the top floors, as the vibration of the air conditioning caused the cracks in the slabs to widen further. Amid customer complaints about the vibration, the air conditioning was turned off, but the cracks in the floors had already grown to 10 cm (3.9 in) wide. An emergency board meeting
4047-493: The standard time was changed back to GMT+09:00 once again. In order to accommodate American television viewers, South Korea observed daylight saving time (GMT+10:00) when Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics . The one-hour time change meant that many daytime events could be broadcast live from South Korea when it was prime time on the U.S. east coast . North Korea also uses Korea Standard Time. From August 2015 to May 2018, North Korea changed its time zone to GMT+08:30,
4118-440: The store began in 1987 and was completed in 1990. The company initially contracted to build the structure withdrew after the chairman of Sampoong Group's construction division, Lee Joon, demanded changes to the concrete support columns that introduced structural concerns. Lee Joon ultimately used his own company to complete construction. Investigators blamed the collapse primarily on the column specifications which were incorrect for
4189-524: The store being steadied by guy cables. At one point, Korea Telecom was transmitting a signal every half hour, designed to trigger cellphones or pagers that trapped survivors might be carrying. After nearly a week, the focus was on removing the debris, but construction crews continued to search for victims. Two weeks after the collapse, city officials concluded that anybody who was still in the building must have already died; therefore, further efforts would be made only towards "recovery", not "rescue". Despite
4260-641: The store?' Response 예/네. ye/ne AFF Time in South Korea South Korea has one time zone, Korea Standard Time ( GMT+9 ), which is abbreviated KST . South Korea currently does not observe daylight saving time . From May 8 to October 9 in 1988, daylight saving time was tested to better accommodate the calendar of competitions held during the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul . In 1434, inventor Jang Yeong-sil developed Korea 's first automatic water clock , which King Sejong adapted as Korea's standard timekeeper. It
4331-440: The sweltering heat, some who were not rescued in the first few days avoided dehydration by drinking rainwater. The last to be rescued, 19-year-old store clerk Park Seung-hyun ( Korean : 박승현, Hanja : 朴勝賢), was pulled from the wreckage 17 days after the collapse with a few scratches; 18-year-old Yoo Ji-hwan was pulled out after nearly twelve days; and a man rescued after nine days reported that other trapped survivors had drowned from
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#17327757132404402-441: The tense fricative and all the affricates as well. At the end of a syllable, /s/ changes to /t/ (example: beoseot ( 버섯 ) 'mushroom'). /h/ may become a bilabial [ɸ] before [o] or [u] , a palatal [ç] before [j] or [i] , a velar [x] before [ɯ] , a voiced [ɦ] between voiced sounds, and a [h] elsewhere. /p, t, t͡ɕ, k/ become voiced [b, d, d͡ʑ, ɡ] between voiced sounds. /m, n/ frequently denasalize at
4473-411: The top floor. However, the management failed to shut the building down or issue formal evacuation orders, as the number of customers in the building at the time was unusually high, and management did not want to lose the day's revenue. When civil engineering experts were invited to inspect the structure, a cursory check revealed that the building was at risk of collapse. The facility's manager also examined
4544-464: The underlying, partly historical morphology . Given this, it is sometimes hard to tell which actual phonemes are present in a certain word. The traditional prohibition of word-initial /ɾ/ became a morphological rule called "initial law" ( 두음법칙 ) in the pronunciation standards of South Korea, which pertains to Sino-Korean vocabulary. Such words retain their word-initial /ɾ/ in the pronunciation standards of North Korea. For example, ^NOTE ㅏ
4615-470: Was a chief administrator of the area where the store was located, was sentenced to three years in jail for bribery . Hwang Chol-Min, a former chief for the area, was found guilty of accepting a ₩12 million bribe from Lee Joon, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Other participating officials, including a former chief administrator of the Seocho district, were also jailed. Other parties sentenced included
4686-675: Was a resident of this apartment until moving to the Presidential Residence 6 months after assuming office. The Yangjae Citizen's Forest has a sculpture made in memory of the collapse. The twelve-meter high marble memorial was designed by Ewha Womans University professor and sculptor Kim Bong-gu, and funded by the Sampoong Group as compensation to the victims. 37°29′54″N 127°0′48″E / 37.49833°N 127.01333°E / 37.49833; 127.01333 Korean language Korean ( South Korean : 한국어 , Hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선어 , Chosŏnŏ )
4757-419: Was also exceedingly loud and led to noise complaints by customers. As a result of the complaints, in 1993, the air conditioning units were dragged across the overloaded roof, resulting in cracking. The units were moved over column 5E, where the most visible cracks in the fifth floor were seen before the collapse. The cracks in the columns worsened because the columns supporting the fifth floor were not aligned with
4828-407: Was completed in late 1989, and the department store opened to the public on July 7, 1990, attracting an estimated 40,000 people per day during the building's five years of existence. The store consisted of north and south wings connected by an atrium . The completed building was a flat- slab structure without crossbeams or a steel skeleton, which effectively meant that there was no way to transfer
4899-487: Was first introduced to Korea in the 1st century BC, and remained the medium of formal writing and government until the late 19th century. Korean scholars adapted Chinese characters (known in Korean as Hanja ) to write their own language, creating scripts known as idu , hyangchal , gugyeol , and gakpil. These systems were cumbersome, due to the fundamental disparities between the Korean and Chinese languages, and accessible only to those educated in classical Chinese. Most of
4970-660: Was found guilty of criminal negligence and received a prison sentence of ten and a half years. Prosecutors originally asked for Lee Joon's sentence of twenty years, but was reduced to seven and a half years on appeal. Lee Joon died on October 4, 2003, months after his release from prison, of complications from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Lee Joon's son and the store's CEO, Lee Han-sang, received seven years for accidental homicide and corruption. Following his release from prison in 2002, Lee Han-sang worked as an evangelist in Mongolia . City official Lee Chung-Woo, who
5041-452: Was held when it became clear that the building's collapse was inevitable. The directors suggested that all staff and customers should be evacuated, but Lee Joon violently refused to do so for fear of revenue losses. However, Lee Joon and the executives left the building safely before the collapse occurred. At about 5:00 p.m., KST (UTC+9:00), as the fifth floor ceiling began to sink, store workers finally closed off all customer access to
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