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Former president Park Geun-hye receives a briefing on the Sewol ferry sinking at the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures headquarters at the Central Government Complex in Seoul on the day of the disaster, Apr. 16, 2014. (provided by Blue House)
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Six former Park administration officials are charged with altering records related to Sewol ferry sinking
The Blue House under then-President Park Geun-hye announced that she had received a report on the Sewol ferry sinking at 10 am on Apr. 16, 2014 – twenty minutes earlier than the actual time of the report – in an apparent attempt to avoid responsibility, it emerged on Mar. 28. It was also learned that Park discussed the Sewol sinking with associate Choi Soon-sil during the latter’s visit to her official residence the afternoon of the accident. The revelations mean that the Blue House submitted doctored evidence to both the National Assembly and the Constitutional Court hearing Park’s impeachment trial. The first special investigation division of Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office under chief prosecutor Shin Ja-yong announced on Mar. 28 that it had indicted former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon and National Security Office (NSO) director Kim Jang-soo on charges of drafting false documents for submitting falsified National Assembly responses and other documents misrepresenting the time of Park’s reports and directions concerning the Sewol sinking. Former NSO director Kim Kwan-jin was also indicted without detention on charges of damaging of public documents for unauthorized alteration of a passage in the basic national crisis management guidelines to state that the “Ministry of Security and Public Administration, not the National Security Office, is the control tower in disaster situations.” Prosecutors submitted a red notice to Interpol in connection to the same charge for former NSO first deputy director Kim Kyu-hyun, who is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University in California. Former crisis management center director Shin In-ho, who is currently serving in the military, was transferred to the custody of military prosecutors. Yoon Jeon-chu, a former Blue House administrative officer, was indicted without detention for perjury in connection with false testimony before the Constitutional Court on Park’s activities the day of the Sewol tragedy. Park remains in her bedroom, receives first report at 10:20 am Investigation findings reported by prosecutors that day cleared away much of the mystery surrounding Park’s activities for a seven-hour period on the day of the sinking. They showed Park remaining at her official residence that day, receiving her first written report between 10:19 and 10:20 am. It had previously been speculated that the Blue House had assessed the accident situation after receiving its first written report from the NSO at 10 am on the day of the accident. Prosecutors concluded that the Blue House deliberately misrepresented the reporting as having taken place earlier to avoid criticism, having concluded on its own from the final Kakao Talk transmission time from the vessel at 10:17 am that this represented the closing of the so-called “golden time” window for a rescue effort. The delay in the initial report to Park was found to have taken place when then NSO director Kim Jang-soo made two calls to her mobile phone, neither of which was answered. It was only at 10:22 am – after the golden time had passed – that Park called Kim to order a rescue effort. Also, while the Blue House secretariat claimed to have received 11 written reports “in real time,” Park was found to have received just two situation reports from former Blue House secretary Chung Ho-sung in the afternoon and evening. In another attempt to avoid responsibility, the Blue House later altered the basic national crisis management guidelines without going through lawful presidential directive amendment procedures, using a ballpoint pen to cross out a passage stating that the “National Security Office is the control tower for disaster situations” and amending it to state that the Ministry of Security and Public Administration was the control tower. Official notices were subsequently sent to 65 agencies and institutions ordering them to amend their guidelines and comply with the new ones. Park discusses Sewol accident with Choi Soon-sil on afternoon of tragedy Associate Choi Soon-sil was also implicated in Park’s activities on the day of the Sewol tragedy. New information showed that Choi visited Park’s official residence at 2:15 that afternoon, arriving in a work van driven by former administrative officer Lee Young-sun and entering as a “Class A security guest” requiring no security check. Park subsequently held a meeting on the accident with Choi, Chung Ho-sung, Lee Jae-man, and former Blue House secretary Ahn Bong-geun, the investigation found. Prosecutors also learned during their investigation that Park’s visit to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Center was based on a decision reached at this meeting. Park previously maintained during her Constitutional Court impeachment hearing and investigation for government interference that there had been “no outside visits to the official residence on the day of the Sewol accident apart from nurse officers and cosmetology personnel.” “After receiving a situation report from the Central Disaster Countermeasures Center, Park gave orders to commit all efforts to rescuing the students and passengers who had not yet escaped the vessel, and after completing her visit to the center she returned at 6 pm to her official Blue House residence, where she subsequently remained,” a senior official with the prosecutors said. At the time of the accident, the Sewol was carrying 476 people, including 325 Danwon High School students on a field trip. A total of 304 perished in the sinking. By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
