Issues surrounding the April 16 sinking of the ferry Sewol took center stage in the parliamentary audit on Wednesday with lawmakers honing in on the disorganized response and lax follow up measures.
The parliamentary Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee grilled the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Coast Guard, accusing the organizations of lacking responsibility and failing in their duties.
The disaster, which left more than 300 people dead, is thought to have been caused by a combination of factors including overloading, substandard safety measures and dereliction of duty by the crew. In addition, concerned government agencies have been under fire for their slow and inefficient rescue operations.
In addition, the ship is thought to have been allowed to operate while in violation of safety regulations due to a long-established network of corruption involving former and incumbent government and marine industry officials.
“It has been revealed that it took 52 minutes for the Jeju vessel traffic service, controlled by the Oceans Ministry, to communicate with the Coast Guard’s Jindo vessel traffic service,” ruling Saenuri Party Rep. Yoon Myung-hee said.
“Far from rescuing under a unified command system, the Oceans Ministry and the Coast Guard were busy avoiding responsibilities for overloading and responding to the accident. The lack of cooperation fueled the disaster.”
Main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy lawmakers on the committee honed in on government agencies’ part in developments that led to the Sewol operating while in violation of safety regulations.
“The Sewol received the ‘fine’ rating in all categories of the safety assessment that the Coast Guard conducted 50 days before the accident,” NPAD’s Rep. Hwang Ju-hong said.
Hwang also said that the safety feature that holds cargo in place was also assessed as being fully functional in 12 checkups conducted by the Coast Guard and related government organizations. The Sewol is thought to have listed rapidly when unsecured cargo and vehicles on board moved to one side.
Faced with criticism from both ruling and opposition lawmakers, the Oceans Minister Lee Ju-young and Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Suk-kyoon admitted to their organizations’ shortcomings.
Wednesday also saw four other parliamentary committees put government agencies under scrutiny. The National Defense Committee took to the combined forces’ command near Daejeon to grill military organizations including the Navy and the Air Force, while the Financial Services Commission came under the National Policy Committee’s scrutiny.
By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)
