Sinking of MV Sewol (2014): From negligence to life

On the night of 15 April 2014 the ferry left Incheon late. Cargo was later found to have been under-lashed and over the authorised load. Ballast was short. Those facts, not weather as a sole cause, sit at the centre of the Korean court file. After 08:30 the ship took a turn, listed and did not recover. Cabin speakers told passengers to wait. The captain and several crew left the vessel. Coast Guard and civilian boats took 172 people from the water and the open decks. Most of those who remained inside were not reached in time.

Of the 304 dead or missing, 250 were Danwon High School students. English reports used that school-trip fact as the moral centre of the story. Korean law treated the same fact as aggravation in the crew trials and as the reason for special investigation acts. Fourteen crew members received prison terms. Lee’s life sentence for homicide by wilful negligence — fleeing without an evacuation order — is the lead criminal result. Chonghaejin and associated companies faced separate proceedings. Yoo Byung-eun, the owner figure sought by police, was found dead in June 2014; identification was announced in July.

Regulators and Coast Guard officers were dismissed or convicted on related charges. Prime Minister Chung Hong-won offered to resign. The so-called seven-hour gap in President Park Geun-hye’s public response became a political file of its own and later coloured the 2016–17 impeachment debate, though the wreck’s technical cause was not a presidential act.