S.KOREA PM RESIGNS OVER GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO FEERY DISASTER
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won announced his resignation
today over the government response to the ferry disaster, in which it
was first announced that everyone had been rescued, focusing attention
on poor regulatory controls.
The Sewol ferry sank on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju on April 16.
More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers on a field
trip from the Danwon High School on the outskirts of Seoul, have died or
are missing and presumed dead.
The children on board the Sewol were told to stay put in their cabins,
where they waited for further orders. The confirmed death toll today was
187.
South Korea, Asia's fourth-largest economy and one of its leading
manufacturing and export powerhouses, has developed into one of the
world's most technically advanced countries, but faces criticism that
regulatory controls have not kept pace.
As part of the investigation, prosecutors raided two shipping safety
watchdogs and a coastguard office. They have also raided two vessel
service centres, which act as maritime traffic control.
Chung's resignation has to be approved by President Park Geun-hye, who has the most power in government.
- "Keeping my post too great a burden on the administration," a sombre Chung said in a brief announcement. "... On behalf of the government, I apologise for many problems from the prevention of the accident to the early handling of the disaster.
- "There are too many irregularities and malpractices in parts of society that have been with us too long and I hope those are corrected so that accidents like this will not happen again."
Chung was booed and someone threw a water bottle at him when he visited
grieving parents the day after the disaster. President Park was also
booed by some relatives when she visited a gym where families of the
missing were staying.
Tempers have frayed over the slow pace of the recovery and frequent changes in information provided by the government.
Source: Reuters
S.KOREA FERRY WITH 476 PEOPLE, SINKS
South Korea's coastguard said Wednesday one person had
been killed as it struggled to rescue 476 people -- mostly high school
students -- aboard a ferry that ran aground and sank off the southern
coast.
Lee Gyeong-Og, the vice minister of security and public
administration, told a press briefing in Seoul that he could only
confirm the rescue of 161 people so far.
However, he added that commercial ships involved in the operation
were understood to have rescued a significant number of people.
"The ferry is almost completely submerged," Lee said, adding that a
detachment of South Korean Navy SEALS were taking part in the rescue.
Lee had said there were no reports of casualties so far, but the coastguard later said one person had been killed.
Photos broadcast on television showed the ship initially tilted over
45 degrees on the port side with helicopters flying overhead, and then
fully capsized with only its stern visible.
- Of the 450 passengers on board the ferry bound for the southern resort island of Jeju, 325 were students from a high school in Ansan, south of Seoul. The remainder of those on board were crew.
- Coastguard officials said the crew sent out a distress signal at 9:00 am (0000 GMT) with passenger testimony suggesting it may have run aground.
- "We heard a big thumping sound and the boat stopped," one passenger told the YTN news channel by telephone.
The 6,825-tonne ferry, which had sailed out of the western port of
Incheon on Tuesday evening, ran into trouble some 20 kilometres (13
miles) off the island of Byungpoong. Distraught parents of the students gathered at the high school in Ansan, desperate for news.
TV footage showed a chaotic scene in the school's auditorium, with
parents yelling at school officials and frantically trying to make phone
calls to their children.
Source: AFP
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