'Sewol Ferry Rescue Failure' Blame, Misdirected Investigation...Failed to Turn Back the Clock

A bereaved family member holds a sign condemning the ruling during a press conference in front of the Supreme Court building on Feb. 2, after the Supreme Court acquitted the coast guard command over the Sewol ferry disaster. By Kwon Do-hyun

The leadership of the Park Geun-hye administration's Coast Guard, which went on trial for failing to rescue passengers during the Sewol ferry disaster by failing to take adequate initial measures, has been acquitted by the Supreme Court. This came nine years after the disaster. No one was punished for the state's failure to rescue the passengers, except for the 123rd Coast Guard unit, which was the "end of the line. For nine years, the families of the Sewol ferry victims have been asking about the state's role, but they have never received an answer. On February 2, the Supreme Court Division 2 (Chief Justice Lee Dong-won) affirmed the original verdict that acquitted nine members of the Coast Guard command, including former Coast Guard Chief Kim Seok-gyun and former West Coast Coast Guard Chief Kim Soo-hyun, who were charged with manslaughter and other offenses.

Kim and others were accused of failing to fulfill their duty to order passengers to evacuate the Sewol ferry on April 16, 2014, killing 303 people and injuring 142 others. The prosecution's Sewol Ferry Disaster Special Investigation Team indicted them in February 2020, alleging that they breached their duty of care to direct passengers to evacuate the ship and allow rescuers to enter the hull to save as many lives as possible. The prosecution believes that there was negligence on the part of the coast guard command both before and after rescue forces, such as coast guard patrol boats and helicopters, arrived at the scene of the accident. Kim and others expressed regret and apologized for the accident, but pleaded not guilty, saying they could not be guilty as a matter of law.

The 1-2 trial court acquitted Kim and others. The court held that the prosecution failed to prove that the deaths of the passengers were foreseeable and that they could have taken measures to avoid the consequences, and that the evidence submitted by the prosecution alone did not meet this condition. It is possible to reprimand those responsible for not maintaining the coast guard system in preparation for large-scale casualties, but it is difficult to hold them criminally responsible.

The Supreme Court also said, "There is no fault in the original judgment for misunderstanding the legal principles or omitting judgment on the breach of duty of care."

Civil society points out that the ruling, which exonerated the coast guard command, was the result of a misstep in the initial investigation of the disaster. At the time of the disaster, the Park Geun-hye administration was slow to investigate the failure of the rescue, and the Joint Prosecutors' Office concluded its investigation by only charging Kim Kyung-il, the former chief of the 123rd. Eleven members of the Coast Guard command, including Kim, were only brought to trial after the Sewol ferry disaster special investigation team was established in 2019 under the Moon Jae-in administration. Kim gave a different account in court than he did at the beginning of the disaster, and the court rejected his version of events and did not find him negligent.

The trial process was also controversial, with different courts making different judgments. In July 2015, the Criminal Division 6 of the Gwangju High Court (then presiding judge Seo Kyung-hwan) overturned the first court's decision to sentence Kim to four years in prison and reduced the sentence to three years, stating that "the coast guard command was also jointly responsible for the negligence in rescuing the passengers, so it would be harsh to place all the blame on Kim alone". The Supreme Court confirmed the ruling in November of the same year.