The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) urged President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday to clarify his remarks regarding the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush after a former National Assembly speaker quoted him as suggesting the tragedy may have been manipulated. In his memoir revealed last week, former Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said he had a one-on-one meeting with Yoon in December 2022, during which he recommended the president fire Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the disaster that killed 159 people in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood in October of that year. According to Kim, Yoon responded that he could not make a decision regarding Lee because of the possibility the incident had been plotted and manipulated by "certain forces." "Is this a country? Is this the president? Should we leave things as they are?" DP Rep. Seo Young-kyo said during a party Supreme Council meeting. "The president must tell us what he said." Seo dismissed the presidential office's response to Kim's claims, which accused the former speaker o f distorting the conversation. "The president should step forward and tell us whether he made those remarks or not," she said. DP Rep. Jang Kyung-tae echoed her remarks, saying the presidential office's explanation is not needed at a time when "allegations have continually been raised that the president is an avid watcher of far-right YouTube channels." "President Yoon should make the clarification himself," he said. At a parliamentary steering committee session later in the day, presidential officials were asked to address the claims in the memoir. Lee Do-woon, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said Yoon "never made such remarks" and instructed officials to investigate all the allegations surrounding the disaster. Source: Yonhap News Agency