by STEVE HAN
South Korean President Park Geun-hye announced Monday that she will scrap the country’s coast guard as a “reform and a great transformation” after hundreds of teenagers died in a ferry disaster last month.
Speaking on national television, Park bowed and offered an apology for failing to prevent the ferry Sewol from capsizing on April 16 when hundred of students from South Korea’s Danwon High School died after getting trapped inside. Although 172 passengers were saved within hours after the ferry sank, 287 are confirmed dead and 17 are still missing in the waters.
Park, who shed tears towards the end of the nationally televised speech, said she will dismantle the coast guard for its inability to save more lives due to poor rescue operations, which led South Korea to suffer one of its worst peacetime disasters.
“The ultimate responsibility lies with me, the president,” Park said. “The coast guard failed to fulfill its duties. The number of casualties could have been greatly reduced had it been more assertive in responding.”
When the first coast guard boats arrived at the scene on April 16, the officers only saved the ferry’s captain and other crew members who had told the passengers to stay inside the tilted ship. Passengers who fled the ship on their own were also rescued. The officers were repeatedly told to reach the passengers trapped inside, but responded that the ferry was too heavily tilted for them to board it, according to the transcripts of coast guard radio communications released this past weekend.
Although Park promised to overhaul her government to help it improve its disaster prevention and management, critics are calling Park’s measure an attempt to blame the coast guard by diverting attention from her own regime. The opposing party, the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, demanded further investigations into the government’s alleged failures.
South Korea’s central government officials are accused of failing to monitor the Korea Shipping Association, a lobby group, which approved the safety of Sewol, even though the officials overloaded the ferry with cargo that was poorly secured and lied about it in its departure report.
Founded in 1953, the South Korean coast guard has also been responsible for preventing Chinese fishing vessels from intruding the South Korean part of the maritime boundary. Some are also concerned that disbanding the coast guard could potentially increase drug smuggling from China and Southeast Asian countries due to weakened coastal protection.
Prior to Park’s controversial speech, the police detained more than 200 people who had tried to march into her office in a protest that demanded her to step down.
Photo courtesy of AFP
