Families shun memorial

President must pledge inquiry into Sewol ferry tragedy, demand victims' angry relatives

South Korea's president vowed to raise the sunken Sewol ferry on Thursday, but failed to appease grieving relatives on the anniversary of the disaster that claimed 304 lives, most of them schoolchildren.

"I will take the necessary steps to salvage the ship at the earliest possible date," Park Geun-hye announced during a brief visit to the southern island of Jindo, the closest landfall to the site where the Sewol sank on April 16, 2014.