The special parliamentary committee tasked with investigating the deadly Itaewon crowd crush began receiving the first round of briefings from eight government ministries and agencies on Tuesday.

Han Oh-seop, the head of the presidential office's situation room for state affairs, apologized to the bereaved families and the general public, while interior minister Lee Sang-min pledged to classify high-density crowd accidents as a social disaster and institutionalize the management of such incidents.

Meanwhile, the committee hearing planned for next Monday is expected to be postponed after the rival political parties failed to reach an agreement on witnesses.

The group representing the families earlier held a press conference urging the parties to strike a deal and to include the family members as witnesses.