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South Korea ferry: president says captain's actions were like 'murder' South Korea ferry: president says captain's actions were like 'murder'
(about 2 hours later)
South Korean president Park Geun-hye said on Monday the actions of the captain and crew of a ferry that sank last week with hundreds feared dead were tantamount to murder, as authorities arrested four more officers of the vessel. South Korea's president has accused the captain of the ferry that sank last week of “murdering” more than 300 passengers, most of whom were teenagers on a school trip, as four more members of his crew weredetained on Monday.Prosecutors said they would decide within 48 hours whether to request arrest warrants for two first mates, one second mate and a chief engineer who were aboard the Sewol when it listed and sank off South Korea’s south-west coast last Wednesday.The ship’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, was arrested at the weekend along with two other officers. Lee, 69, faces five charges, including negligence and violations of maritime law, amid accusations that he abandoned the stricken vessel while hundreds of passengers were stillon board.In an extraordinary broadside, the country's president, Park Geun-hye, said Lee and some members of his crew had committed “unforgivable, murderous acts” by refusing to order an evacuation until the ship was listing so severely that most passengers were trapped."The actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder," South Korean media quoted Park as telling senior aides."My heart and the hearts of all South Koreans have been broken and filled with shock and anger."Above all, the conduct of the captain and some crew members is unfathomable from the viewpoint of common sense. It was like an act of murder that cannot and should not be tolerated.”Park noted that the crew has told passengers to stay put, "but they themselves became the first to escape, deserting their passengers. This is utterly unimaginable, legally and ethically.”Lee was not on the bridge when, according to tracking data, the ship began to list after making a sharp right turn towards the end of its voyage from the western port of Incheon to the resort island of Jeju.The 6,825-tonne vessel was being steered by third mate Park Han-kyul, a 25-year-old woman who was navigating the notoriously difficult stretch of water for the first time. Park has also arrested, along with helmsman Cho Joon-ki, 55.By the time the evacuation order came, about 30 minutes after the first distress signal was sent, the ship had already tilted to one side and many passengers were having difficulty moving.On Sunday, a full transcript of communications between the bridge and traffic officials on Jindo, a nearby island were the rescue effort is being coordinated, revealed that crew members were crippled by indecision over whether to immediate evacuate the passengers.Lee has said he had initially ordered people to stay put due to rough conditions and the absence of rescue boats in the area."At the time, the current was very strong, the temperature of the ocean water was cold," Lee told reporters as he left court at the weekend, adding that he had feared passengers would drown even if they were wearing life jackets.Of the 476 passengers aboard, 339 were pupils and their teachers from Danwon high school near Seoul, who were heading to Jeju on a study trip.The confirmed number of deaths rose to 64 on Monday after divers retrieved more bodies from inside the wreckage. The death toll is expected to rise sharply in the coming days. Most of the 238 still missing are pupils from Danwon.There were more angry scenes at the gymnasium on Jindo where hundreds of relatives have spent the past five days following the rescue operation.On Sunday, about 100 parents attempted to travel to Seoul to demand that president Park take a more active role in the search for their children, but were turned back by police.As the rescue operation entered its sixth day on Monday, some parents conceded that they no longer expected their children to be pulled out of the ship alive.“I dream about him and hear hallucinatory sounds," Kim Chang-gu, whose son is missing, told Reuters. "Somebody told me he was alive but I now have given up. I know how he said 'Dad'. I keep hearing that."In a bitterly ironic twist to the saga, the Sewol’s captain appeared in a 2010 promotional video promising that the ferry route between Incheon and Jeju was safe, provided passengers followed the crew’s instructions."Passengers who take our ship … can enjoy a safe and pleasant trip, and I believe it is safer than any other vehicle as long as they follow the instructions of our crew members," Lee said, according to transcripts of the message released by South Korean media.In a 2004 interview with the Jeju Today newspaper, Lee revealed he had been aboard a log carrier that capsized off the coast of Okinawa in southern Japan, but it was not clear if he had been on the bridge at the time.Amid the grief and recriminations, rescue workers continued to search the wreckage in the faint hope of finding someone alive inside an air pocket, although experts warned that the chances of someone survivingthis long are practically nil.But vessels equipped with cranes will not be used to hoist the Sewol out of the water until rescue workers are certain that there are no survivors, and only with the parents’ permission.Divers have retrieved 24 bodies since they broke their way into the vessel on Saturday night. "We believe there are many people on the third and fourth decks where cabins were located, so we will focus on these areas," a coastguard spokesman told reporters."We have also opened a route leading to a dining hall, and will try to enter that area.”
Sixty-four people are known to have died and 238 are missing, presumed dead, in the sinking of the Sewol ferry last Wednesday. Most of the victims were high school children.
Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, and two other crew members were arrested last week on negligence charges, with prosecutors announcing four further arrests - two first mates, one second mate and a chief engineer - on Monday.
Several crew members, including the captain, left the ferry as it was sinking, ahead of the passengers, witnesses have said.
Park said the crew's desertion was tantamount to murder.
"Above all, the conduct of the captain and some crew members is unfathomable from the viewpoint of common sense, and it was like an act of murder that cannot and should not be tolerated," Yonhap news agency quoted her as saying during a meeting with aides.
Lee, the captain, said in a promotional video four years ago that the journey from the port city of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju was safe – as long as passengers followed the instructions of the crew.
He also told a newspaper that he had been involved in an accident off the coast of Japan years before.
The irony of the video is the crew ordered the passengers to stay put in their cabins as the ferry sank. As is customary in hierarchical Korean society, the orders were not questioned.
However, many of those who escaped alive either did not hear or flouted the instructions and were rescued as they jumped off the deck.
Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were children and teachers on a high school outing.
"Passengers who take our ship to and from Incheon and Jeju can enjoy a safe and pleasant trip and I believe it is safer than any other vehicle as long as they follow the instructions of our crew members," Lee said in the 2010 promotional video, according to transcripts broadcast by regional cable station OBS.
The Jeju Today newspaper interviewed Lee in 2004 when he spoke of close shaves at sea including passing through a typhoon and a previous sinking off Japan.
"The first ship I took was a log carrier vessel and it capsized near Okinawa. A helicopter from Japan's self-defence force came and rescued me. Had it not been for their help, I wouldn't be here now."
The newspaper did not give further details.
Two US submersibles have been deployed in the search for bodies, a coastguard official said. Strong tides hampered operations overnight but the weather was better on Monday and divers have found a number of ways to enter the ship and recover bodies.
A clearer picture has started to emerge of the time around the accident after coastguards released a recording of a conversation between vessel controllers and the ship.
Witnesses have said the Sewol turned sharply before it began listing. It is still not clear why the vessel turned.
It took more than two hours for it to capsize completely but passengers were ordered to stay put in their cabins.
According to the transcript, the controllers told the captain to "decide how best to evacuate the passengers" and that he should "make the final decision on whether or not to evacuate".
Lee was not on the bridge when the ship turned. Navigation was in the hands of a 26-year old third mate who was in charge for the first time on that part of the journey, according to crew members.
The transcript shows crew on the ship were worried that there were not enough rescue boats to take all the passengers. Witnesses said the captain and some crew members took to rescue boats before the passengers.
Lee said earlier he feared that passengers would be swept away by the ferocious currents if they leapt into the sea. He has not explained why he left the vessel.
Pupils at the children's school in Ansan, a gritty commuter town on the outskirts of Seoul, set up shrines to the dead and posted messages for the missing.
The vice-principal of the school, who survived the accident, hanged himself outside the gymnasium in Jindo in another blow to the school. His body was discovered by police on Friday.