Sampoong Department Store collapse
Overview
 
The Sampoong Department Store (삼풍백화점
Hangul
Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

; 三豊百貨店
Hanja
Hanja is the Korean name for the Chinese characters hanzi. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...

) collapse was a structural failure
Structural failure
Structural failure refers to loss of the load-carrying capacity of a component or member within a structure or of the structure itself. Structural failure is initiated when the material is stressed to its strength limit, thus causing fracture or excessive deformations...

 that occurred on June 29, 1995 in the Seocho-gu
Seocho-gu
Seocho-gu is a gu of Seoul, South Korea. It is a popular residential area for the mid- or upper-class residents in Seoul and home to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Seocho Samsung Town in Seocho-dong, near Gangnam Station, is the headquarter of the several corporations of the...

 district of Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. The collapse is the largest peacetime disaster in South Korean history – 501 people died and 937 were injured.
The Sampoong Group began construction of the Sampoong Department Store in 1987 over a tract of land previously used as a landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...

. Originally designed as an office building with four floors, it was changed to a large department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 during its construction by Lee Joon, the future chairman of the building.
 
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