Sewol Research Paper

Sewol: Tragedy at Sea On the morning of April 16th, 2014, the Sewol a South Korea Ferry took off from Incheon traveling to Jeju island. On board, over 476 people 325 of whom were students from a school in the capital city of Seoul. As the ship would begin to sink the captain would fail to give on order to evacuate. The captain and several crew members would instead disembark the ship saving themselves as hundreds of people were left to die. Many factors would contribute to the loss of life during rescue operations. Nearby ships in the area close enough to assist in rescue operations had non-operational rafts and were virtually unable to help. The South Korean Coast Guard would be severely criticized by the public as well as the government. Former President Park would disband the Coast Guard announcing during a nationally televised speech that "The coast guard's rescue operations …show more content…
“Chung's resignation came amid rising indignation over claims by the victims' relatives that the government did not do enough to protect or rescue their loved ones.” (Jindo, 2014). Public outcry for the handling of the rescue operations would flood the internet. Hundreds of people would take to twitter to display their discontent with the way that the government and the ferry company’s handling of the situation. News agency across the world would run the story for months and even years to come. Images of the ferry at the bottom of the sea would pull at the heart strings of the Korean public. The constant news coverage and social media blitz would lead to multiple protest and demonstrations throughout the entire peninsula. “Frustrated protesters and distraught relatives of South Korea’s ferry disaster victims clashed Friday with police after they were prevented from marching on the president’s office in Seoul. Some 2,000 protesters, led by dozens of the victims’ relatives, attempted to break through