S. Korea’s president to disband coast guard

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Park Geun-hye formally apologized today for a ferry disaster last month that killed about 300 passengers, most of them schoolchildren, and she said she will break up the coast guard because it had failed in its rescue mission.

The coast guard’s rescue duties will be transferred to a national emergency-safety agency to be set up, and the national police will take over the guard’s investigative function, Park said in a national address.

“I apologize to the nation for the pain and suffering that everyone felt, as the president who should have been responsible for the safety and lives of the people,” Park said.

The Sewol, with 476 passengers and crew members on board, capsized and sank a month ago, killing at least 286 people. It was South Korea’s worst civilian maritime disaster in 20 years.

Of the passengers, 339 were children and their teachers on a field trip from a high school on the outskirts of Seoul. Only 172 people were rescued; the rest are presumed to have drowned.

Some of the crew members, including the captain, were caught on videotape abandoning ship while the children were repeatedly told to stay in their cabins and await further orders. All 15 surviving crew members have been indicted.

Park has apologized in person to many relatives of the victims, but her administration has faced continued criticism and nationwide anger for its handling of the disaster because a faster initial response could have saved more lives.

She said the coast guard not only had failed in its search-and-rescue duty but also, in its current form, would be unable to prevent another large-scale disaster.

“The coast guard continued to get bigger in size but did not have enough personnel and budget allocated for maritime safety, and training for rescue was very much insufficient,” Park said.