S. Korea suffers from disasters on land, at sea, in air in 2014

SEOUL - There is an old South Korean idiom often cited in year-end parties: "Sending the year with many affairs and many hardships" to welcome a happy new year. This year, South Koreans have to send the year with more affairs than ever that came from all directions on land, at sea and in the air.

A resort-building crash opened the door of disasters that go on during the entire year. On Feb 17, a gymnasium at a resort building in the country's southeastern city collapsed under the weight of heavy snow, killing 10 people and injuring more than 200. A welcome party for freshmen of a university was being held when it crashed down.

April was the most catastrophic. On April 16, the ferry Sewol capsized and sank in waters off southwestern South Korea. Among 476 passengers aboard the ship were 325 high school students on their way for a school trip. The death toll is 295, two thirds of them teenagers, and nine remains unaccounted for.

A paroxysm of grief swept through the entire country, triggering a storm of mourning ceremonies nationwide.

Human error is one thing that the two disasters have in common. The overturned ferry lost capabilities to regain balance over overloading for illegal profits, lax safety supervision and inexperienced sailors. The resort collapse stemmed from faulty construction.

Even before the deep sorrow gradually faded, two subway trains collided in the country's capital, amplifying public fears. On May 2, one train crashed into another at a subway station in the east of Seoul, wounding about 240 people. Signal failure was detected some 14 hours before the accident, but no action was taken.

President Park Geun-hye promised in May to make South Korea reborn as a safe country. The Coast Guard, which was under fire for the bungling initial rescue operations, was disbanded, and the National Safety Ministry was set up as a new control tower by reshuffling disaster management agencies.

With her pledge in vain, a series of fire accidents occurred in May. On May 26, a blaze broke out at a bus terminal in Goyang, northeast of Seoul, leaving eight people dead. Two days later, 22 people were killed in a fire that broke out at a sanatorium in Jangseong, about 300 km south of Seoul.

Stories went on. A helicopter crashed in downtown Gwangju, about 330 km south of Seoul, on July 17 on its way back after supporting search operations for the missing from the sunken ferry Sewol. Five firefighters aboard the chopper were all dead.

Five days later, one passenger was killed, with more than 90 others wounded, in a head-on collision of passenger trains that run along the country's east coast in Gangwon Province. It was caused by a signal disregard. One train engineer was messaging on his social media while driving.

It was not an end. A ventilation window at an outdoor theater collapsed on Oct. 17, killing 16 people and injuring 11 others. They were standing on the ventilation grate for a better view of a K-Pop act performance in Seongnam, just south of Seoul.

Public sorrow and anxiety subdued, but an indefinable something seemed left within the heart of South Koreans. "This year's year- end party of my company would not float on air as before. Drinking liquor till late at night was a core part of the party every year, but it is scheduled to end early this year," Jeon Ji-sik, a 33- year-old office worker, said in a recent interview.

"Recently, my department's get-together reduced sharply. And, I can rarely find many people in bars and pubs as before. I'm not sure why the atmosphere changed as such, but it seemed to have begun sometime in the recent past," said Jeon.