Woman arrested over false claim on ferry rescue

A 26-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday for making false claims on rescue operations to save missing passengers aboard the sunken Sewol ferry.

A court in the southern coastal city of Mokpo, some 410 kilometers south of Seoul, issued an arrest warrant for the woman surnamed Hong on charges of defamation and fraud, citing the possibility of her running away.

Asked whether she admits to her wrongdoings, she apologized for what she did.

The woman has been under questioning over her claims that the Coast Guard had blocked civilian divers from attempting to rescue hundreds of missing people in the sinking of the ferry, while pretending to be a civilian licensed diver in an interview with the MBN cable channel last Friday.

"The maritime police kept civilian divers from jumping into waters and advised them to kill time doing other things," she said in the interview, further fueling public anger over the government's inability to save the victims.

Hong even told the broadcast that a diver saw and communicated with survivors trapped inside the capsized boat, which turned out to be false.

Last Wednesday, the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol en route to the southern island of Jeju from the western port city of Incheon sank in waters off the country's southwestern island of Jindo. Of 476 passengers aboard the ship, only 174 people survived the disaster, 150 have been confirmed dead, and 157 still remain missing.

Nationwide, the National Police Agency (NPA) said it has spotted a total of 87 cases of spreading ungrounded rumors and defamation online, and nabbed 15 suspects for further investigation.

Of them, 51 cases, or the largest share, involved false information being circulated about the disaster, including Hong's incident and those who sent fake text messages while pretending to get them from survivors trapped inside the capsized boat.

"An investigation is under way into 56 out of 87 serious, malignant cases related to the ferry disaster, and 15 people have come under investigation as suspects," an NPA official said, vowing "a far sterner crackdown down the road."