South Korea’s prime minister has resigned over the government’s handling of a ferry sinking that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
Chung Hong-won’s resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims’ relatives that the government did not do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the dead and missing were high school students on a school trip.
A spokesman said President Park Geun-hye would accept the resignation, but did not say when Mr Chung would leave office. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry Sewol, which sank April 16. A prosecutor revealed that investigators were also looking into communications made as the ship sank between a crew member and the company that owns the ferry.
Mr Chung was heckled by victims’ relatives and his car was blocked when he visited a shelter on an island near the site of the sinking a week ago. He gave his reasoning for the resignation to reporters in Seoul yesterday. “As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister,” Mr Chung said.
“There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again.”
Meanwhile, senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin said that two helmsmen and two members of the steering crew who were detained on Saturday had been formally arrested. Eleven other crew members, including the captain, had been arrested earlier.
Divers have recovered 188 bodies and 114 people are believed to be missing.