by REERA YOO | @reeraboo
editor@charactermedia.com
Grief and fury marked the one-year anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster on Thursday, as hundreds of South Koreans mourned for the 304 deceased victims, most of them high school students, in memorial sites across the country.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited the memorial center on Jindo, a southern island near the site of the sinking, to offer her condolences to the grieving families, but relatives vacated the harbor hours before her arrival, in an apparent show of protest, according to the New York Times.
Prior to their departure, Sewol family members raised banners at the mourning site that accused President Park of blocking an independent probe into the entire circumstances of the sinking, including the government’s delayed and widely criticized rescue efforts.
“I would like to express my sincere condolences to the victims and the missing people. Along with everyone in the country, I pray for the deceased,” Park said in her speech from Jindo. “I think now is the time to earnestly prepare to salvage the ferry.”
She added that the government will “make all the necessary procedures swiftly so that ship can be raised as soon as possible.”
Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min also attempted to attend a memorial service at Jindo Harbor on Wednesday, but he quickly left after the victims’ families booed and demanded him to leave.
In Ansan, the hometown of the Danwon High School students killed in the ferry sinking, a memorial siren rang throughout the industrial city for one minute as its 760,000 citizens observed a solemn moment of silence. The city’s public buildings also lowered their flags at half-staff while taxis and buses bore yellow ribbons. Hundreds of Danwon High School students laid white chrysanthemums, a traditional flower of mourning, at an altar inside a white-tent memorial erected near the school.
Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo visited Ansan early Thursday morning, but the bereaved relatives asked him to leave the memorial site.
“We do not want to hear that you will do your best [to salvage the ship], prime minister, we want an outright commitment that the government will start salvage operations,” said Jeon Myeong-seon, a representative of the victims’ relatives, according to the Korea Herald.
Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo bows to bereaved families after being barred entry to a memorial altar in Ansan. (Photo via Yonhap)
A large memorial ceremony scheduled to be held in Ansan was canceled last-minute at the request of the victims’ relatives who claimed that President Park “failed to show up and retract a bill that hinders a thorough probe into the disaster,” according to Yonhap News Agency.
Early Thursday, lawmakers in the National Assembly session adopted a resolution, urging the presidential office to salvage the ferry. The bipartisan resolution passed 161 to 2, with two lawmakers abstaining.
The South Korean government estimated that the cost of raising the ferry is between $91 million and $137 million and said the process could take as long as one and a half years, according to the Associated Press.
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Featured image via Reuters
Recommended reading:
“Sewol Moms Urge Aspiring Journalists: “Tell the Truth to Your Generation”
“The First Anniversary of the Sewol Ferry Sinking”
“South Korea Details Sewol Compensation Victims, Parents Shave Heads in Protest”
