South Korea: The captain of the fatal ferry impersonated a passenger!

According to a video published by Reuters, the doctor who took care of the ship's captain said that Lee Joon-seok presented himself as a passenger, when the coastguards rescued him. "I didn't ask him directly, but I think he said that was a passenger when asked" the doctor mentioned.

Four other crew members of the Sewol ferry that sank last week off the coast of South Korea were arrested today as broadcasted by news agency Yonhap. According to this source three petty officers and one of the engineers of the ship have also been arrested. On Saturday, authorities arrested the captain and two other crew members. All of them are accused of negligence, exposure of passengers at risk and breach of the maritime code.

Sewol sank the morning of last Wednesday off the southern coast of South Korea, while it was heading to the tourist resort of Jeju. On board were 476 people, of whom 352 were students who were making a school trip. Meanwhile divers have stepped up work in the last few hours and some of their parents have left the gym, preferring to wait at the port, but others are still there and one after another are informed about the dead found...

The president of South Korea Park Geun-hye said yesterday that the actions of the captain and crew of the ferry that sank last Wednesday "are equivalent to murder". "The actions of the captain and some crew members are completely incomprehensible and unacceptably equivalent to murder" Park said at a meeting of senior officials, according to a statement from the Presidency. "Not only my heart but that all South Koreans broke, we are shocked and very angry" she added facing the desperate and angry relatives of missing people, mostly parents of underage students.

Families of victims openly criticize the reactions of the government and the authorities from the time of the wreck and consider that the undertaking to rescue passengers was organized too late. As new information is revealed, it becomes clear that the experienced captain delayed evacuation and then abandoned the ship, while hundreds of passengers were still in it, many of them trapped in their cabins. "This is beyond any imagination, legally and morally" Park said noting that the investigation of the sinking will include all parties, from inspectors who were responsible for the safety to the crew and owners of the ferry. According to the testimonies of survivors, after impact the passengers were ordered to remain in their seats for 40 minutes. When the ship began to tilt it was too late to escape.