A lesson learned from the ferry Sewol sinking in South Korea in 2014

Abstract

Owing to the superficial disaster response, so many passengers of the ferry Sewol drowned to death around the Jindo area in South Korea. The aim of this paper was to raise the significance of establishing a national disaster response framework by analysing the actions of the five major stakeholders in the recent tragedy: 1) the national and local governments; 2) the ferry captain and crew; 3) the mass media; 4) the rescuers; 5) the victims and their families. As a key tenet, the author maintains that Korea has to set up an in-depth response framework, just as advanced nations have, so as not to repeat such tragic circumstances should another disaster occur.