President 'sorry' for ferry disaster

South Korean leader's comments seen as attempt to defuse public anger

South Korean President Park Geun-hye apologized on Tuesday for her government's failure to combat systemic and regulatory "evils" blamed for the loss of about 300 lives in a ferry disaster.

Two days after her prime minister resigned over the tragedy, Park's comments are another attempt to defuse growing public anger over the April 16 sinking of the 6,825-metric ton Sewol.

"I don't know how to apologize for the failure to prevent this accident and for the insufficient first response," Park said in a statement to her Cabinet that was broadcast on television.

"I am sorry to the people and heavy-hearted that many precious lives were lost."

Park's government has been widely criticized over perceived corruption and lax safety standards that may have led to the disaster, with claims that the ferry was overloaded and that the passenger list was inaccurate and incomplete.

Echoing words used by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won when he quit on Sunday, Park blamed systemic and regulatory failings for one of South Korea's worst ever maritime tragedies.

"I feel so regretful for having been unable to correct such long-running evils and letting an accident like this take place," she said.

Park accepted Chung's resignation but ordered him to remain in office until the recovery operation was completed.

Earlier Tuesday, the president had traveled to Ansan, just south of Seoul, where she paid her respects at a memorial for the schoolchildren who died in the disaster.

Boiling anger

Of the 476 people on board the Sewol, 325 were students from the same high school in Ansan. Only 75 of them were rescued.

But in a sign of the boiling anger felt by relatives of the missing and the dead, there were shouted demands for her floral tribute to be removed from the shrine, and reports the president had been jostled.

The confirmed death toll from the accident, which took place several hundred kilometers south of Ansan, stood at 193, with 109 people still missing.

As the operation on the seabed crept forward, the probe into the catastrophe was gathering pace, with the head of the ferry's operator called to answer investigators' questions.

Kim Han-sik, the CEO of Chonghaejin Marine, was summoned to the prosecutors' office in the port city of Incheon, from where the ill-fated ferry departed.

Kim, 71, issued a tearful apology for the "horrible tragedy" the day after the accident, saying he and other company officials were responsible for a "grave sin" in letting it happen.

Kim faces charges including negligence, embezzlement and tax evasion related to the family that effectively owns the company, according to media reports.

On Monday, prosecutors raided the Coast Guard office in the southern port of Mokpo to probe allegations that it had failed to respond quickly enough to a passenger's emergency call.

All 15 of the surviving crew responsible for sailing the huge ferry remain in custody, facing charges including negligence and abandoning passengers.

(China Daily 04/30/2014 page11)