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while Blue House National Security Chief Kim Kwan-jin passes behind him on his way to make an address

During the parliamentary audit, the Blue House addressed President Park Geun-hye’s actions on the day of the Sewol tragedy, telling lawmakers that she had received 19 briefings and given seven orders during the much-debated “missing seven hours.” This is the first time that the Blue House had specified what Park was doing during each hour of that time.

In August, Saenuri Party (NFP) lawmaker Cho Won-jin concluded from Blue House records that Park had issued three orders. But a greater number of orders appeared in the recent testimony. Even phone calls that Park made to confirm what was going on were classified as orders. This is giving rise to speculation that the Blue House was trying to make it appear that Park had actually responded actively to the tragedy.

On Tuesday, Blue House Chief of Staff Kim Ki-choon attended the parliamentary audit at the National Assembly Steering Committee, where he explained the briefings received and orders delivered by Park on each hour of Apr. 16, the day of the tragedy.

According to Kim, Park called Kim Jang-soo, then security chief at the Blue House, at 10:15 am, 15 minutes after she received the first briefing about the accident. During this phone call, Park ordered Kim to ensure that not a single life was lost and to thoroughly check all of the rooms inside the ship to make sure no one was overlooked.

Seven minutes later, at 10:22 am, Park called Kim again and told him that the rescue job must be thorough and that every corner of the ferry must be searched. At 10:30 am, she also called Kim Seok-gyun, chief of the Coast Guard, and urged him to make every effort to rescue the passengers, deploying the Coast Guard’s special forces if necessary.

After this, Kim continued, Park was informed in writing by the Chief of Staff‘s office at 1:07 pm and on the phone by the National Security Office at 1:13 pm that 370 people had been rescued, which turned out to be a false report. At 2:11 pm, Park called the security office herself and checked on the progress of the rescue efforts. At 2:57 pm, Park called the office again and confirmed that there had been some confusion about how many people had been rescued. At 3 pm, she announced that she would be visiting the Central Disaster Headquarters.

There are some differences between this account and the material provided by the Blue House that Cho Won-jin (at the time the senior Saenuri Party lawmaker on the special committee investigating the Sewol disaster) made public on Aug. 13. At the time, Cho said that Park had given three orders on the day of the tragedy: at 10:15 am (National Security Office), at 10:30 pm (Coast Guard), and at 5:15 pm.

But in Kim’s testimony on Tuesday, there were not three orders but seven. When Park called Kim again, seven minutes after 10:15 am, to add another comment, this was counted as a separate order, as was a simple phone call to confirm the mix-up about the number of people rescued. Actions that the Blue House regarded as briefings or omitted because they were too trivial to be seen as orders during its explanation in August seem to have all been reclassified to make it sound like Park issued more orders.

Some lawmakers voiced their suspicion that the Blue House was not disclosing Park’s exact location in order to conceal the fact that she had been working from the presidential residence on the day of the disaster. In response, Kim said, “The president starts working when she gets up in the morning, and she doesn’t stop until she goes to bed.”

“There are various places where the president works inside the Blue House - including her official residence, the Main Building, and the office complex - but I cannot reveal where she was at what time for reasons of security,” said Kim Ki-choon.

By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter

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