Related: South Korean Chaos
"South Korean president wants coast guard disbanded" by Hyung-Jin Kim | Associated Press May 20, 2014
SEOUL — South Korea’s president pledged Monday to disband the coast guard amid mounting criticism of its failure to save hundreds of passengers trapped last month in a sinking ferry. Critics said President Park Geun Hye was trying to shift attention from her mishandling of one of South Korea’s deadliest disasters in decades.
The country’s coast guard is a nonmilitary agency and does not patrol the maritime frontier with North Korea. That job is done by the navy. Still, a move to abolish the independent coast guard in a peninsula country surprised many.
The agency has faced withering criticism that it acted slowly and unprofessionally in botched rescue and search efforts. The April 16 sinking has left more than 300 people dead or missing.
Park’s first televised address to the nation since the sinking began with a deep bow and ended with her tearfully reading the names of passengers and crew who died trying to save others. With her approval ratings plummeting ahead of mayoral and governor elections in about two weeks, the speech sought to acknowledge widespread anger over government failures as well as chart a path forward.
Most of the victims were students from a high school near Seoul who were traveling to the southern tourist island of Jeju.
‘‘We failed to rescue students who we could have saved,’’ Park said. ‘‘The ultimate responsibility for not properly dealing with this incident is mine.’’
But Park also held the coast guard responsible for the high death toll. She called the coast guard’s rescue work a failure and said swifter, more aggressive action in the initial stages of the sinking could have saved more lives.
Park said she would push for legislation aimed at transferring the coast guard’s responsibilities to the National Police Agency and a new government safety agency that she plans to establish. Coast guard chief Kim Suk Kyoon said his agency would humbly accept Park’s decision and intensify efforts to recover all missing ferry passengers.
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"South Korean leader dismisses more aides after ferry disaster" New York Times May 23, 2014
SEOUL — President Park Geun-hye’s office said Thursday that she would replace the head of her government’s intelligence agency and her top national security adviser as she struggled to overcome the political fallout of the sinking of a ferry that killed more than 300 people last month.
Nam Jae-joon, director of the National Intelligence Service, and Kim Jang-soo, Park’s main national security adviser, offered to resign, Min Kyung-wook, a presidential spokesman, said Thursday. Park was to announce their replacements soon, Min said.
Min did not clarify why Nam and Kim stepped down, but Park has been under mounting pressure from the political opposition and other critics to overhaul her government and presidential staff for failing to prevent the April 16 ferry disaster and bungling rescue operations.
In South Korea, top leaders traditionally reshuffle their government after a major political disaster or national disaster to mollify public anger and to give their Cabinet a fresh start.
Also Thursday, Park appointed Ahn Dae-hee, a former Supreme Court justice who helped her election campaign in 2012, to replace Chung Hong-won as the prime minister. Chung offered to resign on April 27 with an apology over the ferry sinking.
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"Reward offered for missing South Korea ferry owner" by Hyung-Jin Kim | Associated Press May 24, 2014
SEOUL — South Korea is offering a $50,000 reward for information about a mysterious missing billionaire who authorities say owns a ferry that sank last month, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing.
The disappearance of Yoo Byung-eun and his son has caused a media frenzy in South Korea. Yoo is a member of a church that critics call a cult and have linked to a 1987 mass suicide; church members deny involvement.
Yoo, 73, was thought to be hidden in a church compound near Seoul, and there was a dayslong standoff between police and hundreds of church followers.
But Yoo was not there when church members Wednesday finally opened the compound to authorities. Prosecutors and police announced a $50,000 reward for information about Yoo’s location, and $30,000 for details about his eldest son.
Yoo, head of the now- defunct predecessor of the ferry’s current operator, Chonghaejin, allegedly still controls the company through a complex web of holding companies in which his children and closest associates are large shareholders.
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"Officials: Fire kills 21 in South Korean hospital" Associated Press May 28, 2014
SEOUL — A fire at a hospital annex housing elderly patients in the southwestern county of Jangseong killed 21 people early Wednesday, officials said.
Twenty patients and a nurse died at the hospital, which specializes in elderly patients who suffer from dementia and palsy, and seven others were injured, officials with the Jangseong Fire Department said.
The victims died after suffocating on poisonous gas, officials said.
There were 35 patients and a nurse on duty on the second floor of an annex of Hyosarang Hospital when the fire broke out, officials said. The fire was put out after about six minutes, the officials said. The cause was not immediately known.
Officials said that 45 people, including a nurse, were on the hospital’s first floor but they all escaped.
Some of the dead had their hands bound to their beds, and the second-floor windows were barred, Yonhap news agency reported, without citing any sources for the information.
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"21 dead in S. Korea hospital fire; patient with dementia suspected" by Sam Kim and Eunkyung Seo | Bloomberg News May 29, 2014
SEOUL — A patient suffering from dementia is suspected of setting the blaze that killed 21 people and injured eight at a South Korean nursing home, adding to concerns about public safety after a recent spate of fatal accidents.
An 81-year-old patient is under investigation, police officer Lee Soon-jae said by phone, citing closed-circuit television footage at the Hyosarang hospital for the elderly in Jangseong. The fire broke out at 12:27 a.m. and was extinguished within 30 minutes, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration said.
‘‘The number of victims is large because the patients were sleeping and most of them have problems moving due to senile illnesses including Alzheimer’s,’’ Park Yong-gu, an official at the region’s emergency services control center, said by phone. ‘‘We managed to prevent the fire from extending to the larger next-door building that holds 245 people.’’
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"Pyongyang building collapse leaves many casualties" by Jung-Yoon Choi | Associated Press May 19, 2014
SEOUL — North Korean officials offered a rare public apology for the collapse of an apartment building under construction in Pyongyang, which a South Korean official said was believed to have caused considerable casualties.
The word of the collapse in the secretive nation’s capital was reported Sunday morning by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, which gave no death toll but said that the accident was ‘‘serious’’ and upset North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
The report said it occurred in the capital’s Phyongchon district on Tuesday ‘‘as the construction of an apartment house was not done properly and officials supervised and controlled it in an irresponsible manner.’’
In Seoul, a South Korean government official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information said the 23-story apartment building that collapsed was presumed to have housed 92 families.
That could mean the casualties could be in the hundreds because a typical North Korean family has four members. However, it was not clear that all the residents were inside at the time of the collapse, or that four people lived in each apartment.
It is not unusual for people to start living in apartments before the construction is complete. The official said he did not have any figure for the death toll.
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"Missionary gets life in North Korea labor camp" June 01, 2014
SEOUL — North Korea said Saturday that it had sentenced a South Korean Baptist missionary to a labor camp for life for allegedly trying to build underground churches in the country. Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after he was arrested in the North in late 2012. Bae was accused of trying to establish a proselytizing network inside the North (New York Times)."
Time to say bae-bae. Sorry.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"N. Korea says it’s holding US tourist" Associated Press June 07, 2014
SEOUL — North Korea has detained an American tourist for committing an unspecified crime, the third US citizen being held there.
American tourist is cover for CIA agent.
The state Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit. It did not give details.
‘‘American citizen Jeffrey Edward Fowle entered the DPRK as a tourist on April 29 and acted in violation of the DPRK law, contrary to the purpose of tourism during his stay,’’ KCNA reported, referring to the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The US State Department confirmed an American was detained, but did not identify the person or provide details for privacy reasons.
‘‘We are aware that a US citizen has been detained in North Korea. This is the third US citizen that has been detained in North Korea,’’ spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington. She added there’s ‘‘no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad.’’
Uh-huh.
Harf did not say whether Sweden, which handles consular matters for Americans in North Korea, had been granted access to the American.
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"Missionary gets life in North Korea labor camp" June 01, 2014
SEOUL — North Korea said Saturday that it had sentenced a South Korean Baptist missionary to a labor camp for life for allegedly trying to build underground churches in the country. Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor after he was arrested in the North in late 2012. Bae was accused of trying to establish a proselytizing network inside the North (New York Times)."
Time to say bae-bae. Sorry.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"N. Korea says it’s holding US tourist" Associated Press June 07, 2014
SEOUL — North Korea has detained an American tourist for committing an unspecified crime, the third US citizen being held there.
American tourist is cover for CIA agent.
The state Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said authorities were investigating him for committing acts inconsistent with the purpose of a tourist visit. It did not give details.
‘‘American citizen Jeffrey Edward Fowle entered the DPRK as a tourist on April 29 and acted in violation of the DPRK law, contrary to the purpose of tourism during his stay,’’ KCNA reported, referring to the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The US State Department confirmed an American was detained, but did not identify the person or provide details for privacy reasons.
‘‘We are aware that a US citizen has been detained in North Korea. This is the third US citizen that has been detained in North Korea,’’ spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington. She added there’s ‘‘no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of US citizens abroad.’’
Uh-huh.
Harf did not say whether Sweden, which handles consular matters for Americans in North Korea, had been granted access to the American.
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