Disasters reveal aspects of society that are normally invisible. They identify the mechanisms leading to negative outcomes, expose the values a society prioritizes, show resource allocation, and uncover responses in chaotic and urgent situations.

More importantly, they reveal who makes decisions about a risk and to whom that risk is structurally transferred. In other words, risk reveals power relations within a society. So, what did the Sewol ferry disaster reveal about the nature and power relations in Korean society?

On 16 April, 2014, a 6,800-metric ton vessel capsized and sank on a clear, windless, wave-free day. The crew took no steps to ensure the safety of the passengers, and only escaped to the Coast Guard patrol boat while the ship's standby announcements were being made. The Coast Guard did not communicate with the Sewol crew, let alone order the passengers to leave the ship, and only picked up the passengers who managed to get out on their own, while the Sewol capsized.

The media made a significant error by incorrectly reporting that all passengers had been rescued. Additionally, the president visited the Central Disaster Safety Task Force at 5:15 P.M. and asked uninformed questions, displaying a lack of awareness of the situation. Furthermore, no presidential meetings occurred at the Blue House until 20 April, 2014.

The public hoped that divers could rescue at least one passenger while part of the ship's bow remained above water. However, the Coast Guard lacked deep-sea diving capabilities, and the state failed to provide accurate information or to communicate transparently with the bereaved families. Instead, police were mobilized to monitor and track their movements.

From the day of the tragedy, state intelligence agencies—including the National Intelligence Service, the Military Intelligence Command, and the police—not only conducted illegal inspections of the bereaved families but also monitored all activities related to the Sewol ferry disaster, including online spaces, government ministries, media organizations, and even the Supreme Court, indiscriminately collecting information and reporting it to higher authorities. On 15 May, 2014, it was revealed that the 'Marine Accident Reporting System Chart' required the NIS to be the first to report any accident.

In order to uncover the truth behind these numerous allegations, the families sought to establish a powerful investigative committee endowed with compulsory investigative and prosecutorial powers. However, the political parties were unwilling to support this, leading to the enactment of a special law that lacked these crucial powers. The Sewol Special Investigation Committee, which was created with great difficulty, faced complete obstruction by the Blue House and the government from its inception until it was forcibly disbanded.

In late 2016, a candlelight protest led to the impeachment of former president Park Geun-hye and the installation of a new government. However, this new administration did not make significant efforts to investigate the Sewol ferry disaster. During the Moon Jae-in administration, the Blue House illegally destroyed documents related to the Sewol ferry, and the remains were not released to the public until five days after they were found. In September, 2022, the investigation by the Special Investigation Committee on Social Disasters concluded without resolving the various suspicions related to the Sewol ferry disaster.

The Sewol ferry tragedy exposed more than just the unsafe operation of passenger ships and the incompetence of the Korean Coast Guard. It revealed that the Coast Guard, whose mission is to protect people's lives, stood by and watched people die. It showed that the media, tasked with delivering facts, could propagate lies that had no basis in reality. It demonstrated that the president could be indifferent—or even hostile—towards a national tragedy, that state agencies could inspect and suppress bereaved families, and that systemic obstruction could hamper the investigative committee established by a special law enacted by the legislature.

Furthermore, the tragedy uncovered a harsh reality within our society: even after bereaved families and citizens fought back against this grave injustice and a new government was installed, the new administration did little to uncover the truth.

After the Sewol ferry tragedy, many people said, “I will remember and I will act.” Ten years later, what should we remember, and what should we do? We should remember the injustice in Korean society, and our actions should aim to change that injustice. That would be true mourning and true memorialization.

On the 10th anniversary of the Sewol ferry tragedy, I hope this will be an opportunity to start a discussion about the character of Korean society as revealed by the tragedy, and to determine what actions should be taken to make that character more just.

The author is a doctoral candidate at Seoul National University’s Department of Sociology and former Investigation Team Leader at the Special Commission on Social Disaster Investigation.--Ed.