Sinking of MV Sewol (2015): Life for homicide

On 16 April 2014 the ferry MV Sewol capsized in the Yellow Sea; 304 people died or remain missing, and South Korean courts later convicted the captain and crew. MV Sewol, a Chonghaejin Marine ferry on the Incheon–Jeju run, listed and capsized on the morning of 16 April 2014 near the Maenggol Channel off Jindo in the Yellow Sea. Of 476 people aboard, 172 were rescued. Courts and the government have treated 304 as dead or missing — most of them students and teachers from Danwon High School in Ansan on a trip. This page does not describe the trapped decks.

Investigations found illegal modifications, overloaded cargo, inadequate ballast and a crew that left while cabin announcements told passengers to stay in place. Captain Lee Joon-seok was sentenced to 36 years for negligence in November 2014. The Gwangju High Court in April 2015 substituted homicide by wilful negligence and a life term. The Supreme Court of Korea upheld that life sentence on 12 November 2015.

The hull was raised on 23 March 2017. Special statutes created investigation commissions and a public memorial politics that outlasted the Park Geun-hye presidency. English-language coverage treated the wreck as a national grief story and a state-failure story more than as a Korean statutory case.