“The government should quickly wrap up a technical review and raise the ferry Sewol if the recovery is possible.”
“It will take a large sum of money, but that citizens will support the plan wholeheartedly if the government seeks their understanding.”
- Yoo Seong-min, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party
Saenuri Party floor leader Yoo Seong-min calls for the prompt salvage of the sunken ferry Sewol during a National Assembly speech on April 8, 2015. (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) — The floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party called Wednesday for a prompt recovery of the ferry Sewol, which sank off the southwest coast last year.
The government “should quickly wrap up a technical review and raise the ferry Sewol if the recovery is possible,” Yoo Seong-min said in a speech at the National Assembly.
He also said it would take a large sum of money, but that citizens will support the plan wholeheartedly if the government seeks their understanding.
The recovery process has been estimated to cost 620 billion won (US$560 million).
His comments came two days after President Park Geun-hye pledged to positively consider recovering the submerged ferry.
On April 16 last year, the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank, leaving more than 300 people dead, mostly teenage students on a field trip.
One year after the sinking, the deadly maritime accident is still a major point of social discontent, with activists and the bereaved families criticizing the government’s poor handling of the aftermath.
Last week, the government unveiled a package of financial and rehabilitation aid measures for the bereaved families.
Still, a mainstream group of the victims’ families rejected the compensation package, calling on the government instead to salvage the shipwreck first to find nine people who remain missing from the ferry sinking.
(Yonhap)
