Can Sewol heal or harden rift

Ferry’s recovery raises question of closure

SEOUL, South Korea, March 25, (AP): Days after South Korea’s president was removed from office, a ferry was lifted slowly from the waters where it sank three years earlier — a disaster that killed more than 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, and ignited public fury against Park Geun-hye and became a nationally polarizing issue.

The ferry’s recovery has raised the question of whether that process can bring closure to a country that was roiled and split by the ferry sinking. The quick answer would be: “Not completely.” And the ship’s recovery is now political fodder ahead of a May election to choose a new president.

What many South Koreans first want to know is whether the bodies of the nine missing victims are inside the hoisted Sewol wreckage and whether fresh causes of the sinking can be found.

Finding the bodies could help ease the pains of families desperate to have back their loved ones’ remains, though some critics of the recovery effort say the bodies may have already been swept away. Some relatives went to the scene on boats to watch the salvage work that began Wednesday.

It’s uncertain whether the recovered ship will reveal something totally new regarding what happened on the day of the sinking.

Disaster

After interviewing crew members, shipping regulators and coast guard officers, government investigations already blame the disaster on a mix of factors such as overloaded cargo, improper storage, poor rescue efforts, negligence by crew members and corruption by the ship’s owners. But many grieving family members and their liberal supporters believe the conservative Park government was trying to cover up deeper causes of the sinking amid unconfirmed rumors swirling on South Korean internet sites.

One rumor speculates the ferry collided with a submarine, while another alleges the Sewol was overloaded with rebar to be used for the contentious construction of a navy base on Jeju.

Distrust of the government’s conclusion is partly, perhaps mostly, associated with the sharp conservative-liberal divide in South Korean society resulting from the country’s turbulent modern history marked by Japan’s colonial rule and the 1950s war that divided the Korean Peninsula into two rival countries.

In 2010, a conservative-led government hoisted a sunken South Korean warship and blamed North Korea for torpedoing

beef exporters to sell 400 million Australian dollars ($300 million) in frozen meat to the burgeoning ranks of the Chinese middleclass.

China will be open to all eligible Australian beef exporters.

“Australia is the only country in the world with this market access,” Turnbull told reporters. “This new agreement will drive significant future growth.”

Turnbull later rejected arguments that Australia must choose between its most important security partner, the United States, and its most important trading partner, China, as tensions escalate between the world’s two largest economies.

“We have a staunch, strong ally in Washington — a good friend in Washington — and we have a very good friend in Beijing,” Turnbull told reporters.

“The idea that Australia has to choose between China and the United States is not correct,” he said. (AP)

‘Crimes to be documented’:

The United Nations’ top human rights body agreed on Friday to widen its investigation into widespread violations in North Korea with a view to documenting alleged crimes against humanity for future prosecution. it near their disputed sea boundary. Many liberals didn’t believe it and similar unconfirmed rumors flared. Some liberals cited a history of fabrication of evidence by past conservative, authoritarian governments including one headed by Park’s dictator father.

Bereaved families of the Sewol victims and liberal activists have been camping at a main Seoul boulevard near Park’s office for more than two years, calling for a stronger investigation into the disaster and for higher-level officials to be held accountable.

Accused

Park’s supporters have accused them of politicizing the issue and opposed the use of taxpayers’ money to salvage a civilian ship. Some ultra-conservative citizens even made a display of eating fried chicken and pizza in front of the victims’ relatives who were hunger striking at the boulevard.

As the Sewol was being raised from waters, South Korean liberals escalated political offensive against Park, who was removed by a March 10 court ruling over a separate corruption scandal.

“While looking at the salvaging works and the Sewol surfacing for the first time in 1,073 days, which was conducted swiftly after Park’s ouster, many people have resentments and questions on the incompetent, irresponsible government,” said Lee Jae-jung, a spokesman for the main liberal opposition Democratic Party.

On Tuesday, a day before the Sewol salvaging began, Park was summoned to a Seoul prosecutors’ office for questioning over allegations that she colluded with a confidante to extort money from companies and committed other wrongdoing. Analysts say her possible arrest could worsen the divide, given three of her supporters have died following clashes with police after the court removed her.

Some experts say the ship’s salvaging could re-ignite public debate about many Sewol issues, such as criticism that Park was out of contact for several hours on the day of the sinking. Others say the Sewol issue won’t largely sway the results of the election as surveys show Park’s liberal rival, Moon Jae-in, is already expected to win the vote easily.

“Lots of criticism will be leveled on Park and it will be burdensome for conservatives,” said Chung Jin-young, a professor at Kyung Hee University. “I don’t think the Sewol issue will be settled now (upon its retrieval) ... though it will be forgotten by many one day as time passes.”

North Korea said it “categorically and totally” rejected the resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council. The text was “a product of the US hostile policy towards the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) from A to Z,” its envoy said after boycotting the debate.

The 47-member state forum adopted a resolution, brought by Japan and the European Union and backed by the United States, on the final day of its four-week session without a vote. It called for North Korea to cooperate and allow access for UN investigators, which the reclusive state has never done.

International pressure is building on the country ruled by Kim Jong Un over its nuclear tests — Fox news reported on Thursday North Korea was in the final stages of launching another one, possibly within days.

The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on foreign companies or individuals for violating export controls on North Korea, as well as Iran and Syria, the State Department said on Friday.

The UN human rights office in Seoul would be strengthened for two years with international criminal justice experts to establish a central repository for testimony and evidence “with a view to developing possible strategies to be used in any future accountability process”.

The Seoul office’s current sixstrong staff record testimony from interviews with dozens of North Korean defectors each week, a UN official told Reuters.

“This not only brings North Koreans one step closer to justice for human rights crimes they have suffered, but should also make North Korean government officials think twice before inflicting more abuse,” John Fisher from Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

A UN commission of inquiry, in a landmark 2014 report based on interviews and hearings with defectors, catalogued massive violations - including large prison camps, starvation and executions that it said should be brought to the International Criminal Court. (RTRS)