Tag: Sewol

Her office is claiming this is libel against the President, but even if she did have a procedure done is it illegal for the President to have cosmetic surgery?  Every time I hear these accusations I wonder what these people expect Park to do when the tragedy happened, drive to Cholla-do and jump into the water and rescue all the students herself?

The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday denied as “groundless” allegations that President Park Geun-hye received plastic surgery during a 2014 ferry disaster.

Despite Cheong Wa Dae’s repeated denials, allegations have continued to dog Park that she was absent from her office for some seven hours during the sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16, which left more than 300 passengers, mostly young students, dead or missing.

Presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk stressed that “malicious” reports on the allegations constitute “grave” libel.

“The continuing allegations that Park underwent plastic surgery on the day the ferry Sewol sank are totally groundless rumors,” he told reporters, stressing that the president herself reconfirmed that the allegations were unfounded.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Volunteers are carrying boxes on Aug. 20, 2016, containing possessions by victims of a deadly ferry sinking to temporarily move them from a classroom of Danwon High School in Asan, south of Seoul, to the provincial office of education. In April 2014, the Sewol ferry sank in waters off the southern coast, leaving about 300 people dead. (Yonhap)

Lee Jun-seok (C) answers questions during a special hearing on the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol held in Seoul City Hall on March 28, 2016. Lee, 70, has been sentenced to life in prison for willfully neglecting his duty as a captain to evacuate passengers when the ferry sank off the southwest coast on April 16, leaving 304 people dead. (Yonhap)

Family members of the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol embrace in tears outside the Supreme Court in Seoul on Nov. 12, 2015, after the top court upheld the life sentence for the ferry’s captain Lee Jun-seok for murder. The Sewol sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, killing 304 passengers aboard, mostly high school students on an excursion. The court said Lee willfully neglected to evacuate the passengers. (Yonhap)

This just goes to show that in Korea there are limits to free speech that people need to be aware of:

Suwon District Court sentenced four months in prison to two “Ilbe” members who were convicted of criminal insult. The insult unfolded in this manner: one defendant, last named Kim, purchased the school uniform for Danwon High School–the high school whose entire second year class nearly wiped out in the Sewol tragedy–for the purpose of Internet trolling. Kim discussed with the other defendant, last named Cho, about the best way to troll, and Cho suggested Kim take a picture of himself wearing the uniform and holding up a stick of fish cake. The caption for the picture would read: “I made a new friend”–that is to say, the drowned Danwon student is now friends with fish.  [Marmot’s Hole]

You can read the rest at the link, but this seems like a pretty harsh punishment for Internet trolling.  Korean men who rape USFK soldiers get less less jail time than this.

https://twitter.com/SouthKoreaDaily/status/593862593443340288

Once again I ask why is the Korean taxpayer being asked to pay for this while Chonghaejin Corp. was fined less than $10,000.

South Korea announced plans Wednesday to salvage the ferry that sunk off the country’s southwest coast a year earlier, claiming 304 lives.

The retrieval will likely begin in September and take up to 18 months, the Ministry of Public Safety and Security said after a meeting of the relevant government agencies.

After making a sharp turn, the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized off Jindo Island on April 16 last year en route to the southern resort island of Jeju from Incheon, west of Seoul.

Most of the victims were teenage students on a field trip, with nine bodies still missing.

President Park Geun-hye Thursday vowed to raise the sunken ferry as soon as possible and to take all measures to recover the bodies of the victims who remain missing.

Some of the families of the victims, however, insisted that the government immediately come up with plans for the salvage of the wreckage.

Thousands of demonstrators staged a violent rally at Seoul Plaza in front of Seoul City Hall Saturday after a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of the Sewol sinking, leaving scores of police officers injured. Police rounded up more than 100 violent demonstrators.

In a news conference, Public Safety Minister Park In-yong said priority will be given to preventing the loss of the bodies of the nine people still missing and minimizing any possible damage to the hull.

As the bodies of the missing people are believed to be inside the hull, the vessel will be lifted from the sea bottom without changing its current position, according to the ministry.

The main part of the recovery will involve divers drilling scores of holes into the hull that’s lying on its left side and chaining it to two cranes that will pull the vessel out of the sea, the ministry noted.

About 100 divers will likely be employed for the underwater work, according to experts.

Up to 150 billion won, or about $139 million, will likely be required for the recovery, although the cost could increase further if the project is delayed or any unexpected technical issues arise.

Still, the retrieval also has safety risks and uncertainties, including the possible destruction of the 20-year-old vessel, typhoons in the summer and a strong current in the shipwreck’s location, Park said.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

It was only a matter of time, but it looks like the Korean left is now trying to use the Sewol tragedy to their political benefit by trying to turn it into another 2008 mad cow like violent protest:

Protesters try to topple a police bus at a rally in downtown Seoul on April 18, 2015. (Yonhap)

Police said Sunday they will trace violent demonstrators at a street rally here the previous night that left scores of police officers injured.

“We will run after those who organized the violent rally and acted violently so they could be subjected to legal punishment,” a spokesman for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a news conference.

As many as 74 police officers were wounded, three of them seriously, the spokesman said, adding that 72 police vehicles were damaged and 368 police cameras, walkie-talkies and other equipment were either damaged or stolen.  (………)

More than 13,000 police were mobilized to blockade the road to Cheong Wa Dae and they used hundreds of trucks and other vehicles to seal off the roads nearby.

Some demonstrators destroyed police vehicles and took out fire extinguishers to spray them against the police.

Several of the police vehicles were turned over by some protesters using ropes.

Police rounded up 100 violent demonstrators, including 20 members of the bereaved families of the ferry sinking.

Nine demonstrators were brought to nearby hospitals for injuries suffered in the clash.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link, but as we have seen before the leftists are trying to get the police to over react and then use carefully taken picture to create the perception that South Korea has become a police state just like Park’s father once administered back in the 70’s.  All it would take is the leftists getting violent and the policing responding heavy handedly and then the leftists inserting one of the mother’s of the Sewol victims into the scuffle.  They would love nothing more then having pictures of what appears to be a Sewol victim’s mother being beaten by police and they may have gotten them:

“After countless attempts and struggles until the break of dawn, we are here at the Gwanghwamun Gate with a blanket,” Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter Yu-min in the accident, said on a social networking service on Friday. “In the meantime, the mother of one of the victims broke four of her ribs and 10 others were taken by the police.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

What is actually ironic about the Korean leftist is that this time they actually have a legitimate complaint though President Park is not entirely to blame for the Sewol tragedy.  The lack of safety and corruption in Korea has been going on long before Park ever became President.  Probably the worst thing so far I have seen in the aftermath of the Sewol tragedy is how the captain and crew took nearly all the blame while the company that owned the boat received less than a $10,000 fine.  If the leftists really cared about this tragedy they would be protesting in front o f the Chonghaejin Marine Company demanding that they pay compensation to the families and raise the Sewol themselves instead of protesting President Park.

This is going to be a very expensive operation to do.  The Korean government should force the ferry boat company to pay for this instead of the taxpayers:

South Korea’s president on Thursday vowed to raise the Sewol ferry — which sank a year ago killing 304 people — as mourners marked the anniversary of the disaster.

Most of those killed in the sinking, off the country’s southwestern coast, were high school students. Some 295 bodies were retrieved but nine remain missing.

Speaking in the port of Paengmok, near the disaster site, President Park Guen-hye said she would take “the necessary steps to salvage the ship at the earliest possible date,” the BBC reported.

Park’s announcement — the first time she explicitly mentioned the recovery operation — came soon after the National Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the swift recovery of the ferry, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. The president said all measures would be taken to recover the bodies of the missing.

“I have a heavy heart and my heart aches to think how painful it is” (for the family members), Park said, according to Yonhap.  [USA Today]

You can read the rest at the link, but for causing this tragedy Chonghaejin Corp. was fined less than $10,000.  They should pay to raise the ferry and compensate all of its victims.

Does anyone else find it ridiculous that the crew is getting rightfully slammed by the legal system while the ferry boat company who is just as much to blame for the Sewol tragedy was fined under $10,000?:

Prosecutors demanded capital punishment for the captain of the Sewol ferry, which sank in South Korean waters leaving more than 300 people killed or missing a year ago, during an appeals trial on Tuesday.

The captain, Lee Jun-seok, and 14 other crew members of the ferry were accused of abandoning the ferry and the 476 people on board in the early hours of the ship sinking off South Korea’s southwest coast on April 16.

Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for the captain and life imprisonment for three crew members in charge of steering the ship and jail terms ranging from 15 to 30 years for 11 other crew members.

But a district court sentenced Lee to 36 years in jail, clearing him of manslaughter and other major charges in November.

The 14 others were given jail terms ranging from five to 30 years, while the ferry’s operator Chonghaejin Corp. was fined 10 million won ($9,161). They all appealed the rulings.  [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link, but instead of trying to kill the captain who will already spend the rest of his life in jail how about going after Chonghaejin and increasing the ridiculously low fine they received.