Prime Minister Chung Hong-won resigns over ferry sinking response

[Blue_Tires]

Source: CBC

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won resigned on Sunday over the government's response to the April 16 ferry disaster.

The Sewol ferry sank on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju.

"Keeping my post is too great a burden on the administration," a sombre Chung said in a brief announcement.

Chung was booed and someone threw a water bottle at him when he visited grieving parents the day after the disaster. More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers from one high school on a field trip, have died or are missing and presumed dead. The children were told to stay put in their cabins, where they waited for further orders. The confirmed death toll on Sunday was 187.

Tempers have frayed over the slow pace of the recovery and frequent changes in information provided by the government, including at one time by a local government that everyone had been rescued.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/prime-minister-chung-hong-won-resigns-over-ferry-sinking-response-1.2623250

[progree]

1. Sad he has to be a scapegoat in something he had absolutely nothing to do with

http://news.yahoo.com/skorean-pm-offers-resign-over-ferry-sinking-020600432.html

SKorean PM offers to resign over ferry sinking, 4/27/14

South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, Park Geun-hye, so the resignation offer by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won appears to be symbolic.

[QuestForSense]

2. I'm as sad for him as I am for all the families.

Where are the captain of the ship and the crew?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. In custody - those involved in navigation, anyway

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014788941

[davidpdx]

4. The Prime Minister is the second in line in South Korea

So it is a blow to the Park Administration for him to resign. Here is a video of Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won resigning:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27176695

The rescue effort has been extremely slow considering it is now day 11 and they have not recovered all the bodies yet.

The video over on the BBC of the president of the company that owned and operated the ferry is worth watching. He shows much shame and regret and knows he has "lost face" as a result of what his company did. The reason I mention this is because it is very much a cultural aspect of South Korea and Confucianism.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27072713

[Blue_Tires]

7. Yeah, the recovery effort has been slow

but to be fair the water is dark, cold and choppy; and some parts of the ship are probably still unsafe for divers...

And it's very rare for all of the bodies to be recovered in these kinds of disasters...some bodies fall overboard, drift away, etc. etc....

[progree]

8. The Atlantic Wire calls the Prime Minister position a "largely ceremonial post".

http://news.yahoo.com/south-korean-prime-minister-resigns-over-ferry-sinking-132700303.html
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won resigned from his largely ceremonial post

I must say, I'm flabbergasted by some of the posts that seem to excuse screwing somebody for something that isn't his fault. Confucianism my ass. Being close to government my ass. Sounds more like buttholism. It is scapegoating in every culture.

It's like Biden resigning because of the problems of HealthCare.gov in its first 2-3 months. If this is "being close to government" and Confucianism, then I'll stick to distant atheism.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Well, the families have been overcome with grief

and the incident from beginning to end is a long comedy of tragic and negligent errors...No one likes knowing that their child or loved one died after being told to stay in their seat and wait for help which never came...some people have to be held responsible in that culture, even if their involvement with the tragedy is tangential...

[progree]

10. I don't think holding the wrong people responsible solves anything in any culture, quite the opposit

some people have to be held responsible in that culture, even if their involvement with the tragedy is tangential...

[Blue_Tires]

11. I'm not saying it's right...

I'm saying that grieving people tend to not see matters clearly and sometimes jump to rash judgments...And the "Somebody has to pay" -mindset isn't unique to Korea, either -- It's one of the reasons why we have so many innocent people on death row (many of them convicted even when district attorneys knew early in the legal process that the suspect was completely innocent)

[progree]

12. It wasn't "grieving people" that pressured him to resign. It was the party leaders including the

president (who yes, were pressured by grieving people and the media to sacrifice somebody(es), I'll grant you that ).

I agree we have a lot of innocent people on death row, but that's not because of grieving people either. We have this adversarial justice system where prosecutors are judged by how many people they successfully prosecute and police on how many people they arrest and that the charges stick.

[Blue_Tires]

13. I didn't say death row inmates were due to grieving families

I said it was due to the "somebody has to pay" mentality, which is a larger societal issue...

Yeah, the party leaders and the president made him resign, but are you trying to tell me their decision had nothing to do with the families' protests and clashes with police?

[progree]

14. Yup :fistbump:

[font color = brown]Yeah, the party leaders and the president made him resign, but are you trying to tell me their decision had nothing to do with the families' protests and clashes with police?[/font]

Sorry you missed my late edit of #12 by a minute or so (the part in blue) --

It wasn't "grieving people" that pressured him to resign. It was the party leaders including the president [font color = blue](who yes, were pressured by grieving people and the media to sacrifice somebody(es), I'll grant you that ). [/font]

[treestar]

5. I don't see that he is to blame for it

Very strange.

[Ash_F]

6. People are a lot closer to their government in South Korea than here. /nt