Skorean PM resigns over ferry sinking
JINDO — South Korea's president accepted her prime minister's resignation Sunday over the government's handling of a deadly ferry sinking, although she didn't set a last day in office. In an extraordinary resignation statement to reporters, the prime minister blamed "deep-rooted evils" in society for a tragedy that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing.
The resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims' relatives that the government didn't do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the missing and dead were high school students on a school trip. Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry that sank April 16, and a prosecutor revealed that investigators are also looking into communications made as the ferry sank between a crew member and the company that owns the ship.
South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, Park Geun-hye, so the resignation by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won appears to be symbolic. Min Kyung-wook, a presidential spokesman, told reporters that Park would accept the resignation but didn't say when Chung would leave.
Chung was heckled by relatives and his car was blocked when he visited a shelter on an island near the site of the sinking a week ago. On Sunday, he gave his reasoning for the resignation offer to reporters in Seoul.
"As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister," Chung said. " There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deeprooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again."