South Korea marks 5th anniversary of Sewol ferry tragedy

TIL Desk/World/Seoul/ South Korea on Tuesday commemorated the fifth anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster that had left 304 people dead in 2014, most of them high school students, who were on an end-of-course trip. The main ceremony, which was attended by 5,000 people, was held in a park in the Ansan locality – 80 km south of Seoul – where most of the students had lived.

In a separate ceremony, a group of 24 families of students of the Danwon High School, who had died in the tragedy, travelled to the place where the ferry sank, some 70 km away from the southern island of Jindo. They called out names of the victims and offered flowers into the sea in remembrance, according to reports.

Another ceremony in Incheon – south of Seoul – was held in memory of 41 other victims of the tragedy. On Jeju island, where the ferry was headed when it sank, a memorial ceremony was held, and later a procession of mourners walked to the port where the ferry should have been moored.

“I renew my commitment to preventing the same tragedy from being repeated again. Thorough efforts will be made to ascertain the truth about the tragedy and punish those responsible,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a message that was later tweeted by his office.