Portrait of Park Geun Hye
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Park Geun Hye on Sewol Ferry Disaster

Accepted ultimate responsibility (strong)

TL;DR

Park Geun Hye accepted the ultimate responsibility for the failed disaster response and vowed national reforms to prevent future calamities.

Key Points

  • She delivered an Address to the Nation on May 19, 2014, apologizing for the pain and suffering caused by the disaster.

  • The president announced the decision to dismantle the Korea Coast Guard, transferring its duties to a newly established national safety agency.

  • Criticism over her response contributed significantly to a drop in her approval ratings and was cited as a factor leading to her eventual impeachment.

  • She promised that all profits made by the ferry operator, Cheonghaejin Marine Company, through greedy practices would be restituted to compensate victims.

Summary

Park Geun Hye, as President, accepted the ultimate responsibility for the government's fumbling and inadequate initial response to the Sewol Ferry Disaster of April 16, 2014, expressing deep, sleepless agony over the loss of life. Her core stance centered on acknowledging systemic failures, particularly citing the Korea Coast Guard's operational failure in rescue and salvage, and broader chronic structural problems like government-business collusion and lax safety regulation enforcement that contributed to the tragedy. She stated that if safety regulations had been strictly followed, the disaster would not have occurred.

In the aftermath, the president announced sweeping administrative and structural changes, most notably the decision to dismantle the Korea Coast Guard, transferring its investigation/intelligence functions to the National Police Agency and its maritime rescue/salvage duties to a new national safety agency. Furthermore, she pledged to root out deep-seated societal maladies, such as the "bureaucratic mafia" and collusive ties between government and business, proposing legislative action to restrict retired officials' re-employment and to enforce stricter ship safety guidelines to ensure the victims' sacrifices were not in vain.

Key Quotes

“Everyone was wearing a life vest, so we couldn't tell who was passenger and who was crew,”

Frequently Asked Questions

Initially, the administration faced fierce criticism for a disorganized and poor initial response, including inaccurate public reporting. The president later apologized, stating she felt deep sorrow for not protecting the lives lost and accepting the ultimate responsibility for the failure to manage the disaster properly.

Park Geun Hye proposed major government restructuring, most notably to dismantle the Korea Coast Guard due to its failed rescue operations. She planned to transfer its investigative functions to the police and its rescue/salvage functions to a new national safety agency.

Yes, criticism over her handling of the tragedy fueled public anger and was a significant contributing factor to the political turmoil that followed. The controversy surrounding her response was intertwined with the wider corruption scandal that ultimately led to her impeachment in March 2017.