On May 2nd, South Korea’s Cabinet passed an ordinance, defining the exact operational duties of a committee that is to conduct investigation on the fatal sinking of the Sewol ferry, in April 2014, which caused death to over 300 people.
The committee will consist of 53 members and will have three investigative departments:
- The first will collect and analyze evidence from the ship, in order to determine the causes of the sinking.
- The second will focus on the nine people still missing, with research and identification of remains and belongings found.
- The third will centralize on what to do with and how to preserve the recovered vessel and will discuss with families of the victims, to gather opinions before submitting their recommendations to the government.
The committee will be led by a chairman, a vice chairman and standing committee member, according to yonhap news. Within the committee, there will be also representation of officials from the maritime, interior, education and personnel management ministries, the Office of Government Policy Coordination, the National Police Agency and the Korea Communications Commission.
At the day of the incident, the ship was en route from Incheon to Jeju, in South Korea, and was carrying on board 476 passengers, 304 of which lost their lives and nine are still missing. Most of the passengers were children on a school excursion.
The South Korean government commenced a salvage operation of the Sewol wreck, on 23 March 2017.
