South Korea’s president Park Geun-hye accepted the resignation of Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Lee Ju-young.
Minister Lee was appointed on 6 March, almost a month before the Sewol disaster occurred. The Sewol capsized during a routine Incheon-Jeju trip on 16 April, leaving 304 of 476 passengers either dead or missing.
Since the tragedy, Lee had stayed at Paengmok harbour in Jindo, South Jeolla Province for 136 days to resolve the situation. Paengmok harbour is the closest port to the accident spot.
Lee submitted his resignation right after the disaster to take responsibility and repeatedly expressed his intention to resign. However, President Park decided to keep him in office because of concerns over an administrative vacuum.
The minister’s resignation was finally accepted now that most of the underwater rescue work is done and search for other victims has been called off.
Due to the difficult conditions that continuously interrupted the search operations, South Korean government stopped searching for the remaining nine missing passengers on 11 November. And as a result of the tragedy, the government established the Ministry of Public Safety and Security on 19 November, consisting of more than 10,000 officials, to respond to future disasters more efficiently.
2014 IHS