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S. Korean government slammed over ferry disaster management

April 21, 2014

By Jun Ji-hye

Education officials take part in a meeting at the government complex in Sejong City, Monday, to prepare safety measures for future student field trips. / Yonhap

The government is drawing fire for its failure to train disaster experts although it promised to do so two years ago.

The criticism came to the fore following the administration’s incompetence in dealing with the sunken ferry tragedy, stirring anger among family members of the missing as well as the public.

The Ministry of Security and Public Administration announced a plan in November 2012 to recruit civil servants specialized in disaster prevention and management.

The ministry initially planned to recruit those majoring in related studies at universities from 2013, and then conduct open competitive employment from 2014.

But it neither recruited this occupational group in 2013 nor included such a group in its 2014 employment plan.

“We did not implement the employment plan as academia has yet to get ready. There are not many relevant departments at domestic universities,” said a ministry official.

However, the explanation does not seem to fit, considering Yonsei and Sungkyunkwan universities among other schools have departments related to disaster management.

No control tower

A lack of specialists who can be controllers in emergency situations has been picked as one of the major factors behind the disorganized rescue operations.

The government and rescue teams were blamed for wasting crucial time in their initial reaction to the sinking of the Sewol Wednesday morning.

Experts also pointed out that a control tower that clearly defines the role of each entity is urgently necessary.

“The nation has reaction manuals to deal with disaster situations. But the problem is that the ministries fail to put them into action, as there is no proper control tower,” said Lee Eun-bang, a professor of Coast Guard Studies at Korea Maritime University.

In fact, the Central Disaster Relief Headquarters made some mistakes in understanding the extent of damage including the number of the missing, while authorities were scrambling in confusion to share significant information at the beginning of the accident.

This was because each institute ― the security, education and maritime ministries, and the Coast Guard ― set up their own countermeasure center, contributing to intensifying the confusion.

Families of the missing are despairing as there has been no more news of the more than 200 passengers, mostly high school students, who are still missing.