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Salvage of Sewol ferry to start Wednesday

Posted April. 21, 2015 07:26,   

한국어

The South Korean government will start full-fledged salvage of the Sewol ferry on Wednesday. This comes five months after underwater work ended on November 11 last year. The government will also examine not dispatching staff at the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry to the Sewol Special Probe Committee, in a bid to finally launch officially the committee whose set up had been limping all along.

"We submitted on Monday final report that refloating Sewol is technically possible to the National Emergency Management Agency, and the agency will make the final decision on whether to salvage the ferry Wednesday," Oceans and Fisheries Minister Yoo Ki-june said at the Sejong Government Complex. "The Oceans and Fisheries Ministry will launch related work immediately after the agency makes the final decision."

The ministry has decided to drop the public opinion gathering process that the agency had initially planned to do. "Salvage is possible technically while the National Assembly and the public strongly demand for it. We judged that there is no need to require public opinion," said a ministry official.

Starting Wednesday, the ministry will form an exclusive group that will take procedures such as selecting the firm to do the job. Underwater work for the salvage will start early October.

The revision for the special Sewol law enforcement ordinance will be made soon. But the government first wants to wipe out the misunderstanding that the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry is taking control of the Sewol fact-finding investigation. To this extent, it is examining not to dispatch officials of the ministry to the Sewol Special Probe Committee. "We will reduce the number of dispatch officials. I believe that the planning and coordination head of the committee can be dispatched from other government ministries," said the minister.



jikim@donga.com