By Kim Ji-soo
Staff Reporter
Sometimes, when the time is right, things that we thought would never arrive finally do. After an unusually cold winter ― the remnants of which we are still feeling ― the harbingers of spring are here. In the South, cherry blossoms are in full bloom in Jinhae. In Seoul, snippets of forsythia delicately mix in with brown barren trees along the rugged hills here and there.
It's a bit early and difficult however to rejoice in these changes. The sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26 has greatly saddened the nation. Of the total 104 crew members, 58 were rescued in the wake of the initial hours. Nam Ki-hoon, senior chief petty officer of the frigate Cheonan, was found dead on April 3. There are 45 still missing. Lives have been lost in the rescue process while the remnants of the ship remains under the sea.
In the past two weeks or so, there have been so many revisions of statements regarding the time that the ship went down, to why the Cheonan was traversing in that route in the West Sea and to what might have been the cause of the accident. Frustration prevailed when the authorities kept the 58 survivors of the tragedy inaccessible while hospitalized at the Seongnam Military Hospital, Gyeonggi Province, as impatient lawmakers and Internet users rushed to point their finger at what might have caused the sinking including the possible involvement of North Korea.
There were solemn moments when Han Joo-ho, a veteran of the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), died during the early days of the rescue mission. He dived into the murky waters more than 40 meters deep against the warnings of danger from fellow divers. President Lee Myung-bak made the appropriate decision to visit the northernmost island of Baengnyeong near the disputed sea border with North Korea, despite security concerns. After divers discovered the body of the late Nam, the family members of the 45 missing decided in what may have been the hardest decision in their lives to request the Navy to halt rescue operations and move onto salvaging the remains of the Cheonan.
It was an accident that should have never happened but it seems like the country is learning an expensive lesson in crisis management.
There is a sense that patience has returned as the family members and the rest of the country wait for the exact cause of the accident to be determined, which will be possible once the broken ship is hauled to land. After taking heat for cordoning off the press from the survivors, the Navy held a press conference Wednesday of the survivors as this paper went to print. The government has asked the United States to help in determining the exact cause of the accident. The President has ordered that a civilian expert should replace the Army official currently heading the joint military-civilian investigative team. In sum, the necessary steps are being taken, and thus, the rest of us waiting sincerely hope that when the right time comes, we will know what caused the Cheonan to sink and find the missing.
And, as this year Korea marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953), we also hope that the findings do not lead to any intentional involvement of North Korea.