A month past the sunk vessel accident – How is South Korea now? | "Japan In-depth"［ジャパン・インデプス］

.国際　投稿日：2014/5/29

A month past the sunk vessel accident – How is South Korea now?

Chungmo Yang　(Economics Journalist)

It’s been a month since the “Sewol” ferry sank, which was transporting 476 passengers. On May 21st, 287 people were found dead, 172 survived, leaving 17 still missing.

The main causes of the accident are said to be a combination of cargo overload, lack of experience, as well as inadequate management of cargo. On that day, the vessel was loaded with 3608t of cargo, four times its 987t capacity. The 3rd officer who was at the helm had less than 1 year experience. She tried to suddenly change the ship’s direction in waters very well known to be extremely rough. The ferry lost its balance, the badly tied cargo fell on one side, causing the vessel to sink completely after a mere 2 hours and 23 minutes following the first SOS report.

Soon after the incident, fingers were pointed toward the 15 people in charge of the ship, including the captain, who all escaped and abandoned the ferry with its passengers on board. The worst is that if they hadn’t announced through the speakers, “[Do not move] everyone stay still,” the damage could have been much milder. As hope for rescue suddenly converted to despair, anger began to grow in the hearts of the Korean people watching the incident.

This anger was rather against the entire social system. As the Korean society had been under the paradigm of “economic growth” for years, public safety had been completely neglected. Deregulations promoted by neoliberalism emerged in the background of the ferry accident. People had started to point out measures taken under the former Lee Myungbak administration, which allowed much looser regulations such as the extension of vessel operation period from 20 to 30 years, or their size remodeling.

Anger was even extended toward the actual Park Geunhye administration. Coast guards have failed to find any of the missing bodies. They surely did all their best, but in a situation where citizens are facing death, the government clearly appeared incompetent. In such a case, people have the right and only good reasons to get angry. A weekly magazine published a coverage of the incident, showing the title, “Is this our nation?”, which expressed exactly how the situation was at the time.

Around 50,000 citizens gathered on Chonge Square on May 17th. The announcement made on board the ferry by the captain, “everyone stay still,” was the slogan of the demonstration, expressing the exact opposite feeling: “We can’t keep silent anymore!” Some have voiced out for the resignation of the country’s president.

Ratings in favor of president Park have fallen below 40% for the first time since her appointment. What stands out the most is the backing off of women in their 40s, the segment that was key to the presidential elections in 2012. They are the “Angry Parents.” Probably as a large part of the victims were high school students. The Opposition, however, can’t get any benefits from the situation either, as there was nearly no involvement from them when dealing with the Sewol accident issues. All this has given birth to a new nonpartisan movement. On June 4th, there will be the election for the Chief of the self defense army for the entire nation.

After this election there won’t be any other national election for 2 years.

On May 19th, President Park publicly apologized, “As President, I will assume the ultimate responsibility for the accident.” The next morning, on the front page of a major newspaper, we could see a picture of her in tears. It would be useless to try to find sincerity in her tears, but her technique in letting tears flow down at each name of the victims she pronounced was very sophisticated. She might get back some supporters out of the nonpartisans.

On that same day, she announced a new department for National Safety, the reinforcement of rules of employment for public servants, as well as the dismantlement of the Marine Police Agency, which caused major reactions from the public. Tears of the president with a dismantlement of the Marine Police, is a mixture that may make us feel we’re witnessing an attempt of Populism…

In an editorial on May 19th The New York Times said that South Korea was undergoing a “soul searching.” I personally think that is precisely what is going on. Whatever form it might take, there are reasons to think that the incident of the Sewol ferry has triggered a turning point for Korean society. But no one knows whether it will go right or left or even make a U-turn. South Korea is living in crucial times right now.

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