[Editorial] Death of a Sewol Diver Reveals the Heavy Responsibility of the State

[경향신문] Kim Gwan-hong, a civilian diver who took part in the search operations after the tragic sinking of the Sewol, left this world when his coffin was carried out of the funeral house yesterday, leaving behind three children. Kim was found dead in a greenhouse on June 17. His death testifies that we cannot bury the Sewol tragedy in the past just like this. At the same time, his death tells us that identifying the truth of the accident and punishing those responsible is not the task of just the bereaved family members, but all of us who are still alive.

The president and the government, obligated to protect the people's safety and lives according to the Constitution, should seriously look back on themselves. The diver, Kim had joined the search operations of the ship aware of the danger related to the deep-sea diving operation at the time of the tragedy in 2014. He helped bring back twenty-five bodies. He once lost consciousness, swept away by the currents, during an operation, but returned to the site three days after receiving emergency treatment.

Although a civilian diver, he jumped into the deep ocean water in the place of the Coast Guard, which was busy sparing itself, and brought back the bodies of the dead children in his arms one by one. During that whole time time, the country did nothing. The only thing that Kim received in exchange for his contribution in the search operations was a wrecked body, hospital bills and economic hardships. The government opposed designating thirty of the thirty-nine civilian divers injured during the search operations as persons wounded for righteous causes. The government even held them responsible for the death of their fellow civilian divers. Kim's colleague Gong Wu-yeong was charged for professional negligence resulting in death instead of the Coast Guard just because he was a senior diver. Another colleague of Kim relayed that Kim had a hard time watching Gong stand trial.

Since the Sewol sank to this day, the country has not once shown us any action worthy of a state. It was extremely incompetent in saving lives and it was busy putting the responsibility on civilians after the disaster. The country even ignored the task of identifying the truth. So far, the special committee for the Sewol investigation was held back by members recommended by the ruling party, which called the committee a "tax robber." It failed to uncover the cause of the disaster and the reason why the rescue operations were delayed, including the seven hours of the president. If the committee is forced to shut down at the end of this month leaving its tasks in the current state, the country will be piercing the hearts of the victims a second time. The opposition party submitted an amendment of the special bill on the Sewol incident to guarantee enough time for the committee to conduct the investigation as the first bill of the twentieth National Assembly. However, Saenuri Party's floor leader Chung Jin-suk said, "They have investigated all they could," and is opposing the attempt to extend the activities of the committee. If the country concludes the investigations without even salvaging the ship, who would believe the results? Kim stood before the lawmakers at a parliamentary hearing last December and criticized, "Don't ever call the people for any disaster. The government should take care of it." The government and the ruling party should, at least now, stop blocking the people from getting at the truth of the incident, if they feel in the least responsible for the death of Kim. May he rest in peace.