A parliamentary committee investigating the Itaewon crowd crush held another round of on-site inspections on Friday with a visit to the interior ministry.

Meeting with interior minister Lee Sang-min, committee members inspected the ministry's disaster response system.

When main opposition Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Kyo-heung pointed out that the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters was not swiftly activated at the time of the crush, Lee said that convening the headquarters is not urgent for one-off disasters.

Kim immediately reprimanded the minister for denying an urgent need to respond to an emergency that led to the loss of 158 lives and demanded an apology, to which Lee doubled down by saying that emergency measures such as the onsite command by the Yongsan fire chief are the most important.

After another DP lawmaker, Youn Kun-young, mentioned that Lee was not briefed about the situation for one hour and arrived at the scene two hours late, the minister said that while he finds that regrettable, the fundamental fault lies with the systems in place.

At the end of the inspection, the families of some victims voiced protest against Lee.

In the afternoon, the probe panel was set to visit the Yongsan District Office, which holds jurisdiction over the Itaewon area, to meet with its deputy chair. District Office chief Park Hee-young is absent due to her COVID-19 infection.