Cell Phone Footage of Victims' Voices on Sinking South Korean Ferry Released; Prime Minister Resigns Over Disaster
Cell phone footage of some of the chilling conversations of victims on board the South Korean ferry that sank on April 16 has been released. Over 100 people remain missing.
CNN obtained and translated the three-minute long audio clip, shared by South Korean national TV network JTBC. The forage was reportedly taken from a teenage boy's cell phone on the vessel.
Some of the chilling comments that can be heard on board include: "Wow, it's tilting a lot. We're tilting to this side. Can't move." "You think I'm really gonna die?" What's going on?"
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As can be understood from the other remarks captured on the footage, the people trapped on board are in a state of confusion and do not understand entirely what is happening.
The official death toll from the disaster, according to Reuters, is currently at 187, with more than 100 still missing.
The ferry "Sewol" sank off the southern coast near Jindo with 459 people on board earlier in April, carrying mostly high school students that were on a field trip. While the reason for the sinking has not yet been established, the ferry's captain and several crew members have been arrested for failing to release enough lifeboats during the evacuation. Reports state that only two out of ferry's 46 lifeboats had been deployed.
Prime Minister Chung Hong-won resigned on Sunday for what has been seen as the government's failure to assure a more adequate response to the tragedy as families of the victims have questioned the slow response of the rescue efforts.
"Keeping my post is too great a burden on the administration," the Chung said when announcing his decision. "... On behalf of the government, I apologize for many problems from the prevention of the accident to the early handling of the disaster.
"There are too many irregularities and malpractices in parts of society that have been with us too long and I hope those are corrected so that accidents like this will not happen again."
President Park Geun-hye, who has also been criticized for the government's failures, accepted Chung's resignation. Park has in turn harshly criticized the actions of the crew, calling them "akin to murder."
As part of an investigation into the tragedy, prosecutors have raided two shipping safety watchdogs and a coastguard office, as well as two vessel service centers, which act as maritime traffic control.
As for the cell-phone footage, a man identified as the boy's father is said to have been beside himself with grief when he listened to it.
"My son, it must have been cold and dark where you were," the father, Park Jong-dae, said in an emotional statement. "How much you must have been cold and afraid?
"I hoped and prayed for your survival, but it didn't turn out that way. My son, now it's time for us to say goodbye. It's time for you and me to say goodbye and for me to let go of the hope that I could not let go so far. Please forgive me. Farewell ..."
