Angry, grief-stricken South Koreans have confronted President-elect Roh Moo-hyun, demanding answers about the fate of hundreds of people missing after a subway arson attack in which more than 120 died.
Roh, to be inaugurated on Tuesday, was drawn and tearful as he paid a silent tribute to victims and survivors at a memorial centre near a Taegu subway station where a man tossed a blazing carton of flammable liquid on to a train, setting off an inferno.
He told representatives of grieving relatives an inquiry would find out why the disaster happened and whether safety and human errors had contributed to the high death toll in Taegu, 200 km (120 miles) southeast of Seoul.
"What is most important is to prevent such an accident from happening again. So the government will set up a disaster control agency," he said.
The probe would "thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and why the damage has been huge", he told them.
At the centre of controversy is why a driver stopped his train alongside one already set alight, apparently by a man who said he did not want to die alone, and kept the carriage doors shut for perhaps as long as 20 minutes.
Police said the driver of the second train was under investigation but it was not known yet whether he would be charged.
There were many other questions officials were scrambling to answer -- like why the blaze spread so swiftly and why more people did not escape -- and agonised relatives rushed towards Roh demand information about the 387 people still listed as missing.
But Roh left the relatives he did not meet even angrier.
"Roh came here, but he's gone with the wind, without facing us," said Kang Jangl-kyu, who lost a 20-year-old daughter.
Angriest were relatives of those still missing after one of the world's worst underground railway tragedies and the latest public-works disaster in a country with a poor traffic and industrial safety record.
"Find my daughter, my daughter," one middle-aged woman yelled at Roh as another woman slumped to the ground in a faint.
"I don't believe the government," said Chung Moo-taek, whose daughter is missing.
Others were more resigned. "Now I'm getting accustomed to the situation," said Hwang Nam-jin, the father of a missing seven-year-old girl. "All I can do is wait, wait, wait."
Roh, who also visited a hospital and shook hands some of the 146 people suffering from burns or from inhaling the acrid smoke which filled the three-level subway station and billowed into the air for hours, was not the first to feel such wrath.
On Wednesday, relatives demanded the Taegu mayor talk to them and apologise as the city of 2.6 million, South Korea's third largest, flew flags at half-mast for five days of mourning.