Park's responsibility for Sewol

By Sah Dong-seok

Whether President Park Geun-hye is responsible for the Sewol tragedy is one of the reasons that prompted the National Assembly to vote to impeach her on Dec. 9. The ruling Saenuri Party opposed it, but the opposition parties strongly pushed to have that reason included in her impeachment documents. The opposition claimed that it reflected the will of the people displayed in nationwide candlelit rallies that erupted over the unprecedented corruption and abuse of power scandal engulfing Park and her shadowy confidant Choi Soon-sil.

The Constitutional Court will ultimately hand down a judgment on Park’s responsibility for the nation’s biggest maritime disaster. What is notable, however, is that even before the court’s ruling, many people seem to believe that had the nation’s first female head of state commanded rescue operations properly from the outset, there would not have been so many deaths. Unsurprisingly, this belief has been caused by the public’s resentment of the magnitude of Choi’s influence peddling by making Park her puppet. Furthermore, the President and the presidential office have failed to respond properly to demands from the opposition and civic groups that she reveal what she did during the ``seven missing hours.’’

In fact, there have been suspicions concerning Park’s whereabouts and actions on the day of the ferry sinking that claimed more than 300 lives, mostly high school students. One of the suspicions is that Park couldn’t perform her duties that day because she was undergoing plastic surgery ― a charge vehemently denied by Cheong Wa Dae.

But many of these accusations about her alleged nonfeasance have been raised without accurate facts, largely motivated by politics. The core of all these doubts must be whether rescue operations failed because Park didn’t perform her duties during the crucial early hours while the ferry was sinking on April 16 2014.

Testimony by one of Park’s aides last week before the Constitutional Court may shed light on this controversy.

Kim Kyou-hyun, Park’s senior secretary for foreign affairs and national security, denied Park’s responsibility in the failure to rescue more people, saying it was too late when the President was informed of the disaster after 10 a.m. ``At 9:30 a.m., the ferry was already listing at 51 degrees. By 10:15 a.m. when Park gave her first instructions, the ship listed further, making it impossible to rescue the passengers trapped inside,’’ Kim said.

Unfortunately, Park also came to know the gravity of the ferry sinking belatedly because of false news reports that all the passengers had been rescued, according to Kim who then served as the first deputy head of the National Security Office at Cheong Wa Dae.

Kim’s testimony might not be convincing enough to soothe the people who suffered the trauma of seeing innocent children drowning inside the vessel. But given the urgency of the ferry sinking, it might be too much to demand that Park be held accountable for failing to rescue more people.

It turned out later that the ferry sinking was blamed on overloading, improperly secured cargo and failure to observe basic safety regulations; maritime inspectors didn’t do what was required of them to do either. So while it’s possible to make Park responsible for all these fiascos in her capacity as head of state, it’s questionable if they could be proper grounds for impeaching her.

Of course, she can’t avoid criticism for staying in her residence instead of going to the crisis management center, even after it was apparent that the accident was a national crisis. Her aides explain that the President can work at any place inside the presidential office, but few people seem to be convinced of that explanation.

Why Park’s responsibility for the Sewol tragedy has come under public scrutiny again is undoubtedly the “Choi-gate” scandal that has exposed her lies and incompetence. But it makes no sense if we claim that the President should take responsibility for what she isn’t culpable of.

We just wish that all the passengers could have been saved thanks to a perfect rescue system created on the instructions of President Park. We just wish our education system for sailors had been sophisticated under her leadership, so that they would not desert their ship at a time when many students still stayed put inside the vessel. But all these regrets are futile without a doubt.

After all, what is certain is that we were not capable of preventing their deaths because of our entrenched corruption. And it’s doubtful if we have learned a lesson from this tragedy. The extent of accusations and slandering directed at Park ― especially with regard to her responsibility for failing to save the ill-fated students ― is going too far.

If things go on like this, a similar accident would create a similar sense of doom; should another vessel sink off the southwestern coast as the Sewol did, can we rescue all of the passengers this time? We can hardly answer this question confidently.

There is no doubt that the Sewol calamity must never be forgotten. And nothing will comfort the sufferings of the bereaved families. Nonetheless, we should not let the Sewol tragedy become a tool for political strife any longer.

The most important thing is for all of us to move forward by learning a lesson from the tragic incident. Needless to say, our politicians should cooperate in this just cause.

The writer is the executive editor of The Korea Times. Contact him at sahds@ktimes.com.