South Korea said yesterday it would revoke the license of the company that owned the ferry that sank with the loss of about 300 lives last month, as prosecutors prepared manslaughter charges against its chief executive.
Chonghaejin Marine Co chief executive Kim Han-sik was picked up at his home south of Seoul and taken into custody in the southwestern port city of Mokpo.
“Kim faces various charges, including manslaughter and violating maritime law,” senior prosecutor Yang Jong-jin said.
Photo: EPA
The charges stem from allegations that Kim was involved in, or turned a blind eye to, the overloading of the Sewol’s cargo consignment — seen as a major contributing factor to its capsize on April 16.
Meanwhile, the South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it planned to close down Chonghaejin’s ferry operations entirely.
In a statement, the ministry said it would begin by revoking the company’s license to operate the route taken by the Sewol from the western port of Incheon to the southern island of Jeju.
At the same time it would pressure the owners to give up the licenses to its two other routes between the mainland and outlying islands.
“The name of Chonghaejin Marine Co will never be allowed to darken the ferry industry again,” a ministry spokesman said.
Handcuffed, and wearing a cap and surgical mask that hid his face, Kim was paraded before TV cameras after he was detained.
“I apologize to the victims and the families,” he said.
He then refused to answer further questions from reporters, staying silent with his head bowed.
The captain of the Sewol has already been arrested, along with 14 crew members and four Chonghaejin Marine officials.
The ferry had 476 people on board when it sank after listing sharply to one side and then rolling over.
Initial investigations suggest it was carrying up to three times its safe cargo capacity.
The confirmed death toll stood at 269 yesterday, with 35 people still unaccounted for.
Ko Myung-sok, spokesman for the federal disaster force, said operations to recover the remaining bodies had been repeatedly suspended because of conditions at sea, with powerful currents a constant danger for the dive teams.
“So far, 24 divers have been treated for injuries and decompression sickness,” Ko said.
The death of a diver on Tuesday has fueled debate as to how long the recovery operation should continue.
The deciding factor so far has been the sensitivities of the relatives of those still unaccounted for.
The coast guard has promised that the giant floating cranes to be used in the salvage operation would only be brought in once all the bodies trapped in the submerged ship have been retrieved, but with some bodies being recovered several kilometers away from the disaster site over the past week, it is unclear just how many remain trapped.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS