hankyoreh

Candles lit up at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Dec. 24

The first candlelight rally of the new year will be held in honor of the Sewol ferry. Jan. 9 marks the thousandth day since the sinking of the Sewol ferry on Apr. 16, 2014.

During a press conference, the organizers of the rally (known as the Emergency Nationwide Campaign for the Resignation of Park Geun-hye) announced that the title of the 11th candlelight rally, which will be held on Jan. 7, is “Down with Park Geun-hye and Up with the Sewol Ferry.” The press conference was held on Jan. 5 at the office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions in central Seoul.

During this rally, the organizers are planning to focus on calling for a full investigation of the Sewol sinking and for the prosecution of the guilty parties. During the main assembly, which will begin at 5:30 pm on Jan. 7, surviving students from the Sewol sinking will come to the stage to talk about the past thousand days.

A number of events are scheduled to commemorate the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry, including a performance by the April 16 Choir, which is composed of family members of the Sewol victims, and a poetry reading by the poet Ham Min-bok, who wrote the poem “I Even Feel Bad about Breathing in April” in remembrance of the tragedy. There will also be a “lights out” event at 7 pm designed to demand a full disclosure of Park’s actions during the first seven hours of the tragedy . After that, the Sewol victims’ families are planning to march to the Blue House, with a group photo taken of the students in first grade going before the procession.

“Seeing 10 million candles has brought us hope, but we’re still afraid, since we’ve seen the candles go out before. The emotions behind the candles by themselves are not enough to get to the truth behind the Sewol tragedy or to build a safe society. Please don’t put out the candles,” said Kim Yeong-oh (also known as the father of Yu-min, one of the Sewol victims) during the press conference.

At 2 pm on Jan. 5, the newly established People’s Sewol Investigative Commission organized a debate at the National Assembly on the topic of the Sewol sinking and the impeachment. One of the speakers in the debate was Lee Jeong-il, a lawyer and head of the Sewol task force with MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, who drew attention to the fact that Park had visited the government disaster response headquarters at 5:15 pm on the day of the accident and said, “They’re saying that all the students had life jackets on, so why is it so hard to find them?”

“This was an admission that Park was completely unaware of what was happening not only with the sinking but also with the rescue. Even after that, Park neither convened a meeting to plan rescue and recovery efforts nor gave any instructions whatsoever. It’s absolutely essential that she be impeached,” Lee said.

The People’s Sewol Investigative Commission was established by the victims’ families after the Sewol Special Investigative Commission concluded its activity with the goal of carrying on the commission’s work in the private sector.

By Heo Seung, staff reporter

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