Park calls crew's actions 'murderous'

Four more officers of sunken ferry arrested in fatal maritime disaster

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday that the actions of some crew of the ferry that sank last week were "tantamount to murder".

Eighty-seven people are known to have died and 215 are missing, presumed dead, in the sinking of the Sewol on April 16. Most of the victims are high school children.

Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, and two other crew members were arrested last week on negligence charges, with prosecutors announcing four further arrests on Monday - two first mates, one second mate and a chief engineer.

Lee was also charged with undertaking an "excessive change of course without slowing down" while traversing a narrow channel.

Several crew members, including the captain, left the ferry as it was sinking, ahead of the passengers, witnesses have said. Park sharply criticized the behavior in a meeting with senior aides on Monday.

"The actions of the captain and some crew members were utterly incomprehensible, unacceptable and tantamount to murder that cannot and should not be tolerated," the president said.

Lee, the captain, said in a promotional video four years ago that the journey from the port city of Incheon to the holiday island of Jeju was safe - as long as passengers followed the instructions of the crew.

He also told a newspaper that he had been involved in a sea accident off Japan years before.

In the April 16 accident, the crew had ordered the passengers to stay put in their cabins as the ferry sank. As is customary in hierarchical Korean society, the orders were not questioned. However, many of those who escaped alive either did not hear or ignored the instructions and were rescued as they abandoned ship.

Of the 476 passengers and crew on board, 339 were young students and teachers on a high school outing.

"Passengers who take our ship to and from Incheon and Jeju can enjoy a safe and pleasant trip, and I believe it is safer than any other vehicle as long as they follow the instructions of our crew members," Lee said in the 2010 promotional video, according to transcripts broadcast by regional cable station OBS. He was not referring to the Sewol, which came into service on that route in 2013.

The Jeju Today newspaper interviewed Lee in 2004 when he spoke of close shaves at sea, including passing through a typhoon and a previous sinking off Japan.

"The first ship I took was a log carrier vessel, and it capsized near Okinawa. A helicopter from Japan's Self-Defense Force came and rescued me. Had it not been for their help, I wouldn't be here now."

The newspaper did not give further details.

'I dream about him'

Parents of the teenagers missing in the accident in what is likely to turn out to be one of South Korea's worst maritime disasters sat exhausted from days of grief on Monday, waiting for the almost inevitable news that their loved ones had died.

They have spent all their time since the accident in a gymnasium in the port city of Jindo, taking turns to vent their anger at the crew's inaction and slow pace of the rescue operation.

One of those waiting in the gymnasium was Kim Chang-gu, whose son Kim Dong-hyup is among the missing.

"I dream about him and hear hallucinatory sounds," he said. "Somebody told me he was alive, but I now have given up. I know how he said 'Dad'. I keep hearing that."

Reuters-AFP-Xinhua