Sacheomwi, "Park Geun-hye Blue House Falsely Recorded Sewol Ferry Disaster Awareness Timing"... Requests Prosecutor Investigation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] An investigation has revealed that the Blue House under the Park Geun-hye administration falsified the initial recognition time of the Sewol ferry disaster. The Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters (Sacheomwi) has requested a prosecution investigation into former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun and former First Deputy Director of the National Security Office Kim Kyu-hyun, who were responsible for security at the time.

On the morning of the 13th, Sacheomwi held a press conference at Post Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul, stating, "The initially reported time of recognition and dissemination by the Blue House does not match objective data, confirming related allegations," and added, "We plan to request a prosecution investigation on charges including falsification of official documents."

According to the investigation by Sacheomwi, the Crisis Management Center of the Blue House National Security Office sent a text message at 9:19 a.m. to 153 senior secretaries and secretaries at the Blue House stating, "At 08:58, a report was received of flooding on a passenger ferry (Sewol) carrying 474 people near the waters off Jindo, Jeollanam-do; Coast Guard is verifying." Sacheomwi stated, "Considering the testimonies of those involved and the time required to confirm that the number of passengers was 474, it appears that about 10 minutes elapsed from the initial recognition to the sending of the text message," and added, "For this reason, we judged the Blue House's previous claims regarding the initial recognition and dissemination time of the disaster to be false."

After the Sewol ferry disaster, the Blue House under the Park Geun-hye administration prepared a report related to this under the direction of former Chief of Staff Kim, which was submitted to the National Assembly during the 2014 audit. According to this report, the Blue House first recognized the accident at 9:19 a.m. through the news channel YTN.

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