{"id":3317,"date":"2024-04-15T08:38:38","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T08:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalpulse.net\/?p=3317"},"modified":"2024-04-15T08:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T08:38:38","slug":"it-was-hell-10-years-after-south-korea-ferry-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalpulse.net\/?p=3317","title":{"rendered":"‘It was hell’: 10 years after South Korea ferry disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jung Sung-wook’s teenage son was one of 304 people who died when the overloaded Sewol ferry capsized off South Korea’s southern coast in 2014 – Copyright AFP Jung Yeon-je<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n

Sue Han KIM<\/em><\/p>\n

The ferry sank live on television as the children on board sent desperate text messages to their parents \u2014 10 years after South Korea\u2019s worst-ever maritime disaster, families are still reckoning with the horror.<\/p>\n

Jung Sung-wook\u2019s teenage son was one of 304 people who died when the overloaded Sewol ferry capsized off South Korea\u2019s southern coast on April 16, 2014.<\/p>\n

Almost all the victims were schoolchildren who obeyed orders to stay in their cabins, while the crew escaped.<\/p>\n

One of the last text messages Jung\u2019s son Jung Dong-soo sent was to his mother, telling her that the ferry had tilted to 45 degrees \u2014 prompting his father to race to the scene of the rescue operation in a desperate bid to find his child.<\/p>\n

When the senior Jung arrived at the school gymnasium in southern Jindo where survivors were being taken, he got his first glimpse of the chaotic rescue operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was literally hell \u2014 I mean, chaos. No one responded properly, the children were left alone, and the parents came down and took the children home. It was so chaotic, in a word, it was hell,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

He says he has \u201ca lot of regrets\u201d about how the rescue effort played out, thinking that if things had been done differently, more people could have been saved.<\/p>\n

After it became clear his son had died, Jung became involved in the search for missing bodies, and after that, in the campaign to salvage the vessel, helping to lobby the government to have the Sewol raised from the seabed and taken to shore.<\/p>\n

Even in that process, \u201cthere were a lot of errors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Botched rescue? \u2013<\/p>\n

As the 6,825-tonne Sewol began taking on water the passengers were told by the crew to stay put \u2014 but the captain and his colleagues were first to leave the vessel. They were later jailed for their actions.<\/p>\n

The disaster was blamed on a deadly combination of cargo overloading, an illegal redesign and poor helmsmanship by what the court called an \u201cincompetent\u201d crew.<\/p>\n

The rescue was also botched, many experts have said, but former coast guard chief Kim Suk-kyoon who was tried on charges of mishandling the rescue mission \u2014 and acquitted in November \u2014 recently said there was nothing else they could have done.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople claim that casualties could have been prevented or their scale reduced had the coast guard issued an evacuation order. They make such claims without understanding the situation,\u201d Kim, who now teaches maritime policing at a local college, said in an interview Saturday with the daily Hankook Ilbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sewol was already tilting at 50-60 degrees when rescuers arrived,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was difficult for passengers to escape safely without instructions from the captain or crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intense public fury targeted then-president Park Geun-hye after it emerged she was uncontactable for several hours as the disaster unfolded. She was later impeached, in part due to her handling of the sinking.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Things have got worse\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n

Despite prison sentences, court-ordered compensation, and a change of government, father Jung says he feels not enough has been done to account for the tragedy and make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, 10 years later, I feel even more sorry about the fact that even though I tried so hard, there was no proper punishment and no investigation into the truth,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the current administration now, we believe things have got worse\u2026 in relation to the disasters, (President) Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s government just keeps trying to hide them and has no plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s rapid transformation from a war-torn country to Asia\u2019s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse is a source of national pride.<\/p>\n

But a series of preventable disasters \u2014 from the Sewol ferry to the 2022 Itaewon Halloween crowd crush, which killed more than 150 mostly young people \u2014 has shaken public confidence in authorities.<\/p>\n

District-level officials and some police officers have been prosecuted over the Itaewon disaster, but no high-ranking members of the government have resigned or faced prosecution, despite criticism from victims\u2019 families over a lack of accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victims have the right to be accurately informed by the state of why such a disaster occurred and how things are progressing. This is something that our country is lacking so far,\u201d Jung said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

‘It was hell’: 10 years after South Korea ferry disaster
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#hell #years #South #Korea #ferry #disaster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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