Korean Coast Guard Personnel Acquitted of Criminal Liability for Sewol Sinking

GIKorea | February 15, 2021 | crime & punishment | 2 Comments

It seems to me it would be a difficult precedent to start by holding first responders criminally responsible every time an emergency operation does not go well. Who would want to take the risk of being a first responder then? It appears that the Seoul court agrees with that assessment:

The salvaged Sewol ferry sits at a port in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, southwestern South Korea, on April 16, 2020, the sixth anniversary of the sinking of the 6,800-ton Sewol passenger ferry. (Yonhap)

A Seoul court on Monday acquitted a former maritime police chief of mishandling the rescue operation during the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people.
The Seoul Central District Court found Kim Suk-kyoon, then-chief of the Korea Coast Guard, not guilty of professional negligence in one of the country’s worst peacetime disasters.
Nine others, who were in key posts of the organization at that time, were also acquitted of the same charge.
Yonhap

You can read more at the link.