South Korean prime minister resigns over ferry disaster response
JINDO. KAZINFORM - South Korea's prime minister announced his resignation Sunday morning, taking responsibility for the slow initial reaction to a ferry's sinking that has left nearly 200 dead and scores more still missing, according to CNN.
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won explained his decision on national television. He apologized "on behalf of the government for the many problems that arose during the first response and the subsequent rescue operation," in addition to "problems that existed before the accident." "During the search process, the government took inadequate measures and disappointed the public," Chung said. "I should take responsibility for everything as the prime minister, but the government can assume no more. So I will resign as prime minister." Chung urged South Koreans to stand united, rather than divided. "This is not the time for blaming each other but for finishing the rescue operation and dealing with the accident," he said. "In order to get over these difficult times, I ask the citizens for help." Chung becomes the highest-profile public figure to fall after the April 16 capsizing of the Sewol ferry that carried more than 300 South Korean high school students. Many in the country have lambasted the government's response to the disaster. Searchers continue to still look for passengers and crew, and so far have retrieved 188 bodies. Another 114 people are still missing. A father of a missing ferry passenger -- a girl -- called Chung's resignation "meaningless." He and the girl's mother and sister are outraged at the government about what they say is a disorganized rescue operation. Chung "doesn't want to take responsibility for this mess," the mother told CNN's Nic Robertson. She felt that if President Park Geun-hye were to resign "that might actually do something." The prime minister's role is to coordinate other ministries within government, say experts in South Korean politics. The president appoints the prime minister, and Park will choose the next prime minister. Though the legislature can question that person before he or she takes the job, ultimately the president alone has the power to choose who gets the job, said Nicholas N. Eberstadt with the American Enterprise Institute, who has written extensively about North and South Korea. Chung wasn't "a beloved figure, but he wasn't especially unpopular," Eberstadt said. The capsizing of the ferry is the biggest disaster in recent South Korean history, and it's a huge story there, occupying hours and hours of news coverage, said David Straub, the associate director of the Korean Studies Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Full story