The National Assembly will soon begin discussions on ways to compensate the families of those who died in April’s ferry sinking, the country’s main political parties said Tuesday, shortly after the government announced the end of search operations for those still missing in the disaster.
The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank off the country’s southwest coast on April 16, leaving 295 people dead and nine others missing.
Most of the victims were students from a high school in Ansan, just south of Seoul, who were on a field trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.
Offering an apology to the families of those still missing, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Lee Ju-young on Tuesday announced the termination of search operations inside the sunken vessel, saying the chances of recovery have become slim.
Last week, the National Assembly passed a package of bills aimed at preventing a disaster similar to the April sinking, including one that calls for an independent investigation into the tragedy and compensation measures for the victims’ families.
During a weekly meeting earlier in the day, the floor leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) agreed to immediately launch discussions on the compensation measures at the parliamentary agriculture and oceans committee, both sides said.
The ruling party’s chairman, Kim Moo-sung, expressed hope that the victims’ families would understand the government’s decision to halt search operations.
“It’s sad, but a decision had to be made,” he told reporters at the National Assembly. “Divers have risked their lives to carry out the search, but as the weather gets colder, they won’t be able to go (underwater) any longer if the water temperature drops.”
In a statement, NPAD spokesman Kim Sung-soo called for utmost efforts to retrieve those missing in the process of salvaging the sunken ship.
The other two bills in the package call for the dismantlement of the Coast Guard and the National Emergency Management Agency, and measures to swiftly retrieve the wealth of those found to have caused people’s deaths through illegal activities, including any wealth hidden by a third party.
President Park Geun-hye proposed the reorganization of the government amid criticism that officials’ poor initial response to the disaster contributed to the high death toll.
The wealth retrieval bill came as current laws made it impossible to retrieve the wealth of the ferry’s late owner, Yoo Byung-eun, because some of it had been given to his family members.
Investigators believe that Yoo and his family ultimately caused the tragedy by overlooking safety and maximizing profits through cargo overloading and excessive remodeling of the ship.
All three laws are scheduled to be passed through a Cabinet meeting presided over by Park next Tuesday and promulgated the following day, officials said. (Yonhap)
