"I as a president take full responsibility" Tearful apology from president Park on National TV.

[asth77.livejournal.com]

VIDEO.


Yonhap. Source : The Korea Herald.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye breaks down at a pres conference as she formally apologises for the ferry disaster that killed more than 300 passengers and says she will break up the coast guard that failed in the rescue mission.

South Korea's President Park Geun-hye's announced plans on Monday to disband the coast guard and root out corruption and collusion between regulators and shipping companies that furious citizens believe led to a ferry disaster last month that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
President Park Geun-hye's first televised address to the nation since the April 16 sinking began with a deep bow and ended with her tearfully reading the names of passengers and crew who died trying to save others.
With her approval ratings plummeting ahead of mayoral and governor elections in about two weeks, the speech sought to acknowledge widespread anger over government failures as well as chart a path forward.
Most of the victims were students from a single high school near Seoul who were travelling to the southern tourist island of Jeju.
The President has apologised before, but critics have called for her to formally address the nation and respond to claims that incompetence, corruption and bad leadership doomed the ferry and those trapped inside it.
A focus was the coast guard, which has been under growing public criticism over allegations of poor coordination and slow search-and-rescue work during the initial stages of the sinking.
The President called the coast guard's rescue operations a failure and said she would push for legislation that would transfer its responsibilities to the National Police Agency and a new government safety agency she plans to establish.
"The final responsibility for not properly dealing with this incident is placed on me," she said.
More than one month after the sinking, 286 bodies have been retrieved but 18 others are still missing.


A Buddhist monk prays for the victims and missing passengers of the sunken ferry Sewol at a group memorial altar in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, May 7, 2014.


Source: APTN, the telegraph UK , Cr Pics : Lee Jin Man @ Yahoo News

Idk if the video is gonna work huhhhh.

Comments

[noodlebringer.livejournal.com]

instead of breaking up the coast guard, perhaps they should focus on strengthening the coast guard so that if situations like the Sewol Ferry sinking happen again (i honestly hope they don't), they will be better equipped with dealing with it without it turning into a national disaster.
A lot more people could have been saved had the coast guard been trained to act quickly and efficiently.

[zatanna-333.livejournal.com]

I also don't completely understand the disbanding of the coast guard. They are shifting the legal/investigative part to the police and forming a new organization to handle salvage/disasters/etc.

If the corruption was that bad in the coast guard and somehow the government never saw it and/or took action, why should anyone believe that the same organization will now somehow just make everything magically better by dismantling it and slapping a new coat of paint on the system?

I am sure there is more too it, but that is going to be a huge cost, so I hope this isn't just some symbolic gesture to assuage calls for justice.

[lcbarnes.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Breaking up the coast guard makes NO sense at all! That sounds completely fishy to me

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

That's not how politics in Korea (and Japan) works. Her disbanding and reforming the coast guard is about the current coast guard taking responsibility so that the public can trust the coast guard in the future.

Giving the coast guard more training or money or gear at this point would be seen as a promotion to the coast guard. They can't be promoted in this situation.

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

Disbanding the Coast Guard is not an effective way to resolve the situation. South Korea should focus on improving their Coast Guard and being better able to resolve future situations in maritime operations

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

This would be seen as "rewarding" the coast guard in this situation. It's a politically poor move to try to "improve" them right now, even if that may be what they do eventually.

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

I gasped yesterday when she said she would break up the coast guard. I can't imagine just disbanding an entire branch of the armed forces.

[waterpulse.livejournal.com]

I'd take her regret a lot more seriously if the government was focusing on preventing future tragedies instead of pointing fingers and calling for resignation and being more concerned with how the global community will view South Korea because of this tragedy.

Whatever, she can cry on tv and take as many photo ops as she wants, doesn't change anything.

[pwhyt.livejournal.com]

mte took the words out of my mouth

[katzsong.livejournal.com]

Breaking up the coast guard? Why? Yes they were slow, but it should be because lack of skill/training or lack of clear operational procedure.
I think the focus should be more on the corruption and safety procedure of shipping companies. Well, that's just me :3

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

still giving her the side eye

[musicnkisses.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine disbanding an entire portion of the military. Like, I'm trying to imagine how that would work in the US.

[ohlookshiny.livejournal.com]

jfc will this woman ever stop making terrible decisions

oh god i didn't know bodies were still missing. i can't imagine how the families can cope :/ it's been a month and they can't even get any semblance of closure, they can't even bury the body of their child. it's just so awful.

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

How about she fires herself then. Since she refused to recieve any help from other countries even though the Korean coastguard was failing

[cher-ex3.livejournal.com]

Semi-related, but I wonder if this whole mess has had any effect in people's perception of women in high governmental positions in Korea.

[cuizy.livejournal.com]

do you think she's not doing a good job?

I wonder what koreans think of the president crying in case of a woman vs man

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

I hope she's not firing aton of people because what a dick move if she is:/

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

...wasn't almost all of the damage done before the coast guard could have even done anything?

[digitalqueen.livejournal.com]

yes, but the rescue operation wasnt conducted properly either. they took forever to get inside the boat (volunter divers were the first to get inside and start recovering bodies), then they started interfering with the volunter divers work (they cut someone's lifeline aaccidentaly), then they banned from helping only to allow them into the operation again cause they werent doing much progress on their own. plus, usa's help was only accepted to calm down the families, but the ship they sent wasnt given any orders and it stayed there for a week doing nothing until they left.

no to mention, if they had arrived to the ship faster and gotten inside when it was sinking, more peoplecould have been rescued alive. so they truly had no idea what to do in a situation like this one.

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

rme
obviously she's only doing this thing to look good because this isn't a real solution at all
how about your administration fix the whole deregulation shit your party has been pushing out?
i can't believe that boat was even allowed to still operate

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

How is national police agency going to know what to do any better in this kind of situation when their training is concentrated on stuff happening on land and not on water?

What they should be doing is re-train all coast guard personnel. Maybe also hire some trainers from other countries as their current training has been obviously lacking. I'm sure there are some Korean American coast guards for instance they could maybe loan for few weeks from US as trainers. And they should also look at some rescue plans that for instance Finnish and Swedish rescue people have made for ferries (after Estonia sinking almost all safety demands and rescue plans and training have been upgraded a lot here) and from now on there should be more often drills for different kind of emergencies.

[bebita19.livejournal.com]

Uh...wouldn't that be counteractive instead?

[hinadori.livejournal.com]

I remember when she was first elected us I-fans were like "Yay women!" but the K-fans were like "NOPE!!". Now I understand why.

[ohcrepe.livejournal.com]

Aw don't play the gender card. Women and men are still capable of making bad decisions, except she happened to make terrible ones.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

I get that when public pressure mounts elected officials feel like they have to do something to show they're fixing the problem, but I just don't see how breaking up the entire Coast Guard changes anything. Unless she means firing the people who directly contributed to botching the rescue effort, it sounds like she's making a lot of fall guys/women to lessen pressure on the government.

Those photos are sad.

[lucyownsjoaquin.livejournal.com]

crying won't solve or fix anything hun

[xblackchristmas.livejournal.com]

honestly feel bad for her. i have a feeling she'll harm herself D:

[premonitioner.livejournal.com]

sighs

i wish that korea wasn't the type of culture where people take responsibility by resigning or just doing a complete upheaval of the previous system. korea's had four prime ministers in six years. another is coming in because the current one has resigned.

a system is implemented, and if it doesn't cause any major issues, no matter how utterly flawed it is, it is kept until a major issue occurs.

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

It shows you how much corruption is despite the culture of respect and taking responsibility.
I mean, 12 prime ministers since 2000 is really ridiculous. They strike me as figureheads or scape goats, like who really holds the power?

Just no ...

[eliteja81.livejournal.com]

After she and Blue House tried to media play for sympathy , I don't believe her words or tears....
"Criticism of President Park's handling of the ferry disaster is being silenced by government censorship of South Korea's mainstream media. Online videos and commentaries exposing the truth behind the failed rescue operations have been deleted from the web.

The mainstream media has served as the government's mouthpiece by releasing disingenuous news stories that have misled public opinion. A video footage of President Park comforting a relative of a ferry victim was later found to have been staged for the mainstream media. In fact, the woman in the video had no connections to anyone aboard the ferry."
More about it:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/05/113_156833.html

Thinking about her ratings in a time like this.....