hankyoreh

Apr. 22. Due to Park’s noble actions during the sinking of the Sewol ferry

By Park Soo-hyuk and Kim Il-woo, staff reporters in Incheon and Ansan

“We’ll never forget you. We’re so sorry we couldn’t save you.”

A funeral was held in Incheon on the morning of Apr. 22 for Park Ji-young, a 22-year-old crew member who lost her life after helping passengers escape the sinking Sewol ferry.

The hallways of the funeral home at Inha University Hospital in Incheon’s Central district were filled with 120 funeral wreaths bearing messages like, “We will treasure your good deeds deep in our hearts,” “Beautiful heroine Park Ji-young,” and “We will never forget your sacrifice.”

It was a heart-wrenching scene at the coffin rites, with grief-stricken family members weeping and calling out Park’s name. The coffin was taken by Park’s home in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, before arriving at the municipal cremation facilities at the Incheon Family Park graveyard.

In 2012, Park took a hiatus from university to work as a crew member for Cheonghaejin Marine Company. It was while performing this job that she perished in the Sewol’s sinking off the island of Jindo in South Jeolla Province on Apr. 16. When the boat began to capsize, Park gave her life vest to a student from Danwon High School in Ansan, saying that she would leave after she had finished rescuing the students. Her lifeless body was later recovered from the waters.

An online petition campaign has been under way on major portal sites to have Park designated a Deceased Noble Person. On Daum’s Agora page, more than 32,000 netizens had added their signatures to a petition titled “Let’s have Sewol crew member Park Ji-young buried in the National Cemetery as a patriotic martyr” as of 5 pm on Apr. 22.

Meanwhile, Cheonghaejin, the ferry’s operator, drew even more popular disapproval when it refused to pay 10 million won (US$9,600) in funeral costs.

“We heard from the company that this was not a situation where funeral expenses would be paid, so for now the city has covered the costs,” explained an official with Incheon Metropolitan City on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, more parents grieved for the lost lives of their children at funeral homes in Ansan. At around 7:20 am on Apr. 22, a funeral was held at Korea University Ansan Hospital for a 17-year-old identified by his surname Kwon; by the end of the day, a total of 11 funerals had been held for student victims. Teachers at Danwon High School were left in tears every time another hearse carrying the body of a former student passed by the school athletic field on its way to the crematorium. As of Apr. 22, 23 funerals had been held in Ansan for teachers and students at the school.

One funeral in Ansan was canceled the day before the coffin removal ceremony when it was belatedly learned that the body had been incorrectly identified. The ceremony for a 17-year-old student in Danwon’s eleventh grade Class 7, identified by his surname Lee, had been scheduled for 6 am on Apr. 23 when DNA testing results from the National Forensic Service showed that the remains belonged to another student. The body had been taken to the funeral home at Ansan Cheil Hospital at around 1:15 am on Apr. 21 after Lee’s parents made a facial identification in Jindo. Lee’s family members had left the funeral home when the error was discovered.

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