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outside the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul

Im Yeong-ae lost her son Oh Joon-yeong in the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking. On the morning of June 28, she stood at a press conference outside the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul to oppose the forced disbanding of the special commission investigating the tragedy. “[The commission] is my last hope for helping take away the guilt I feel over those children. I miss them like crazy,” she said.

Im has been protesting on the road outside the Central Government Complex in Seoul for four days. “The ground is cold and the seaweed rolls are tough to digest, but that’s not the hard part,” she said. “The toughest, most infuriating times for me are when I just can’t fathom why we need to go out on the street to demand a rightful investigation period [until Feb. 2017] for the special Sewol commission.”

Two days before the closing date for the commission’s activities as announced by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, civic groups and victims’ families are speaking out to demand the government withdraw its plan to forcibly disband the commission. On June 28, they paid visits to the Central Government Complex and National Assembly to demand guarantees on the commission’s activities until after the Sewol’s hull has been raised and a thorough examination is concluded.

An event opposing the government’s plans to end the Special Sewol Investigative Commission’s activities

In particular, family members cited the commission‘s report the previous day that the Sewol was carrying iron bars for the construction of a naval base in Jeju as another reason a longer investigation period should be guaranteed.

“We’re starting to see what it was the government wants to cover up by insisting that [ferry company owner] Yoo Byung-eun was responsible for everything,” said one.

In the afternoon, the family members visited the National Assembly to urge an amendment to the special Sewol Law during the June extraordinary session of parliament. A clash broke out in the process when police confiscated signs the family members were holding as “demonstration paraphernalia.”

Lee Tae-ho, a standing committee member with the group April 16 Alliance, called on the police and National Assembly to “show that at least some minimal sympathy for and solidarity with the people who suffered this tragedy are operating in our society.”

Meanwhile, a special committee filed suit in Seoul Administrative Court the same day to demand that schoolteachers and Sewol victims Kim Cho-won and Lee Ji-hye be recognized as having died on duty. Kim and Lee currently have not received government recognition as having died on the job because they were hired as hourly instructors.

Kim’s father Kim Seong-wook visited the court carrying signatures from 305,202 citizens.

“I hope our daughter’s death is recognized as having come in the line of duty so that her honor can be restored,” the tearful father said.

By Bang, Jun-ho and Lee Jae-uk, staff reporters

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