Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has offered to resign after the ferry disaster on April 16th that resulted in 302 mostly high school students either dead or missing. The country has remained angry and saddened about the loopholes in safety measures and lax regulatory enforcement that appeared during investigations of the ferry disaster, putting the South Korean government under fire. The government has also received criticism because of it's inability to respond quickly and efficiently during the early stages of the disaster. President Park Geun-hye quickly accepted Prime Minister Chung's resignation but has asked him to stay on until the government has completed its rescue operations. The president has been the subject of public anger as well, being criticized for not showing enough strong leadership in the handling of the ferry disaster. After giving an apology to the people, Mr. Chung stepped down from his post as prime minister, making him the highest-ranking public official to lose his job since 1995. The prime minister is a largely ceremonial in South Korea, and is sometimes fired after a major scandal or policy favor when the government needs to soothe public anger. This disaster has followed many scandals that have place the government under even more criticism, and the resignation of the prime minister has been viewed as cowardly by many. As of Sunday morning, 115 ferry passengers still remain missing as investigations continues.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/world/asia/south-korean-premier-resigns-over-ferry-disaster.html?ref=world
-Ambrielle Barker
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