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South Korea Prime Minister Quits Over Sunken Ferry in Symbolic Gesture

South Korea's prime minister resigned Sunday over the government's handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame.
Image: South Korean PM Chung Hong-won resigns over ferry sinking
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won bows during of a press conference in Seoul, South Korea, 27 April 2014, where he announced his intent to resign over the Sewol ferry sinking.YONHAP / EPA

JINDO, South Korea — South Korea's prime minister resigned Sunday over the government's handling of a ferry sinking that has left more than 300 people dead or missing and led to widespread shame, fury and finger-pointing, blaming "deep-rooted evils" in society for the tragedy.

But South Korean executive power is largely concentrated in the president, so Chung Hong-won's resignation appears to be symbolic.

Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said President Park Geun-hye would accept the resignation, but did not say when Chung would leave office.

Image: South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Hong-won gets into a car to leave the Central Government Complex in Seoul, South Korea, on April 27, 2014.Ahn Young-joon / Yonhap via AP

Chung's resignation comes amid rising indignation over claims by the victims' relatives that the government did not do enough to rescue or protect their loved ones. Most of the dead and missing were high school students on a school trip.

Officials have taken into custody all 15 people involved in navigating the ferry Sewol, which sank April 16. A prosecutor revealed that investigators were also looking into communications made as the ship sank between a crew member and the company that owns the ferry.

Chung was heckled by victims' relatives and his car was blocked when he visited a shelter on an island near the site of the sinking a week ago. On Sunday, he gave his reasoning for the resignation to reporters in Seoul.

Meanwhile, senior prosecutor Yang Jung-jin said that two helmsmen and two members of the steering crew who were detained Saturday had been formally arrested. Eleven other crew members, including the captain, had been arrested earlier.

Yang also said that a crew member called the ship's owner, Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd., as the ferry was listing, but declined to disclose whether the caller was the captain. Local media reported that the captain called for company approval of an evacuation. Prosecutors said they are analyzing the content of communications between the ship and the company.

The arrested crew members are accused of negligence and of failing to help passengers in need. Capt. Lee Joon-seok initially told passengers to stay in their rooms and took half an hour to issue an evacuation order, by which time the ship was tilting too severely for many people to get out.

Divers have recovered 188 bodies and 114 people are believed to be missing, though the government-wide emergency task force has said the ship's passengers list could be inaccurate. Only 174 people survived, including 22 of the 29 crew members.

The seven surviving crew members who have not been arrested or detained held non-marine jobs such as chef or steward, according to Yang.

Despite bad weather, dozens of divers planned to continue underwater searches Sunday for the missing, said Ko Myung-seok, a spokesman for the emergency task force. Ko said the weather was worsening Sunday, with a high-seas advisory and rapid ocean currents.

— The Associated Press