I interviewed Lee Hyun-ah (Dept. of Accounting) who reminds people of the Sewol sinking.

Q. It has been 165 days since the Sewol ferry disaster. Are you still upset by it?

Lee: As time goes by, I still can’t calm down. Public opinion regards the Sewol ferry disaster as a political affair. The disaster is a political one, and it is natural for people to talk about it. People do what the National Assembly didn’t do.

Q. What truth do the bereaved want to be revealed?

Lee: The sinking of Sewol can’t be an accident because action wasn’t taken properly at that time. The whole nation is aware that neither the government nor any state system did their part in a situation where more than 300 people were locked in the ferry. I want to determine which state system erred and what went wrong.

Q. There is public opinion that bereaved families are asking for too much. What do you think of that?

Lee: They didn’t ask for too much. The majority of what they asked for was facts rather than compensation.

Q. How is the petition doing?

Lee: People delivered 3.5 million signatures to the National Assembly 100 days after the Sewol sinking, 4.5 million by early September, and have gathered 5 million at present. We will keep doing this until we collect 10 million signatures.

Q. What is next for you and would you like to leave a message for readers?

Lee: I will keep reminding students and people of the Sewol sinking, by making paper ships with raked leaves, putting pinwheels on the grass at school, and gathering signatures in front of the school. My message is that I want everyone to empathize with the bereaved families, not simply comfort them.

Seong Jaeho  -

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