hankyoreh

mother of Heo Da-yun

“It’s all my fault.”

The 49-year-old mother, identified by her surname Cho, kept repeating the words through tears as she spoke to a Hankyoreh reporter on Feb. 16. Her 21-year-old son (surnamed Kim) was arrested on Jan. 26 after posting a picture on the right-wing website Ilbe Storage showing himself dressed in a Danwon High School uniform with fish cake in his hand and a caption reading, “I ate my friend.” The term “fish cake” is used by Ilbe regulars to insult the students from the Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, high school who drowned in last April’s Sewol ferry sinking - the implication being that they became “fish food.”

“I should have listened to what my son was saying and helped him to grow up a healthier person,” a tearful Cho said. She was visiting to deliver a message of apology at a tent set up by families of the tragedy’s victims at Ansan’s Hwarang Park, which she has done every day since Feb. 8. She also sent a letter of apology to the family members on Feb. 15. Later that evening, she sent the same letter to the mobile phone numbers of reporters identified for her by the victims’ families. “I wanted to apologize for what my child did, but I don’t know where to post it,” she explained.

The letter read, “I apologize. I am the mother of Mr. Kim, the one who recently posted the ‘fish cake’ photograph on the Ilbe website that hurt so many family members of Sewol victims. I did not know what my son had done, and I too was shocked when I saw the picture. I could not begin to imagine what it must have felt like for the people most affected by the tragedy.”

Cho went on to write, “My son has been through many difficult experiences growing up, but I will not try to make excuses by bringing them up. Many people grow up properly under even tougher circumstances.”

In closing, Cho wrote, “If I can be forgiven for this, I will look for part-time work that my child can do, or things that I can do with him, so we can be reborn and live a better life. I truly hope to visit you again as a new, honest and hard-working person. I am very sorry for causing you pain.”

Cho has raised Kim and a high-school age daughter by herself in Seoul since a divorce. Kim, who did not receive a proper middle school education, was unemployed and spent much of his time on the internet, she explained.

After being contacted by police, Cho took her son to the station the following day. Kim explained to the police he had “done it to get attention.”

“I demanded to know why he would do such a thing, and he told me he would visit the families later and apologize,” Cho said.

“I thought he was just quietly spending all his time on the internet. I had no idea he was doing such things on a site like Ilbe,” she added. “As his mother, I offer my sincerest apologies to the victims’ family members.”

By Kim Il-woo, staff reporter

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