June 29, 1995, 5:57 p.m. One of the most luxurious department stores in Gangnam collapsed. 502 people were killed and 937 were injured in the greatest tragedy since the Korean War. The collapse of the Sampoong Department Store was a national trauma broadcast across the nation for nearly a month. Sampoong had begun as a construction company in the ‘60s and was one of the backbones of Korea’s rapid development. Sampoong raced on ahead without any time to look back during this generation of growth and development. The fact that it all ended in a major disaster is a result of the social problems we had all created. We look back on the tragedy 25 years later with the CEO of Sampoong at the time, Lee Hansang.