In an emotional televised address, South Korea’s president has said sorry for last month’s ferry disaster in which around 300 passengers, most of them schoolchildren, died.<br /><br />She formally accepted responsibility for the sinking and vowed sweeping reforms to improve safety, saying the coastguard would be disbanded as it had failed in its rescue mission.<br /><br />“The coastguard got bigger in size but did not have enough personnel or a sufficient budget allocated for maritime safety, and there was a lack of training for lifesaving,” said President Park Geun-hye, who cried in what was her first national TV address since the ferry Sewol capsized and sank with 476 passengers and crew on board.<br /><br />At least 286 people were killed and 18 remain missing. Only 172 people were rescued, with the rest presumed to have drowned.<br /><br />Of the passengers, 339 were children and their teachers on a field trip from a high school on the outskirts of Seoul. <br /><br />The coastguard was accused of being slow and ineffective. A new emergency safety agency will take over its rescue duties. <br /><br />Park also vowed sweeping reforms to improve oversight, as well as tough punishment for bureaucrats and businesses whose negligence endangers public safety.<br /><br />Some of the crew, including the captain, were caught on videotape abandoning ship while the children were repeatedly told to stay put in their cabins and await further orders.<br /><br />All 15 surviving crew members were indicted, including the captain and three senior colleagues on manslaughter charges. The remaining 11 crew were indicted for negligence.<br /><br />The prosecution says the ferry was structurally defective after a remodeling to add capacity and was massively overloaded with cargo. A sharp turn then caused it to list and capsize.<br /><br />Park, who is in the second year of a single five-year term, has apologised in person to many family members of the victims but her administration has faced continued criticism and nationwide anger for its handling of the disaster<br /><br />Her popularity has plummeted and critics say that for victims’ families, her apology and pledges are too little, too late.
