South Korean PM Resigns From Office Over Ferry Disaster Which Claimed 300 Lives

South Korean Prime Minister, Chung Hong-won, this morning Sunday April 27th announced his resignation 11 days after a ferry carrying school children on a field trip to the island of Jeju capsized and sank, killing over 300 people. (Read Story here)
PM Hong-won made the announcement at an emergency news conference that held in the country's capital, Seoul, early this morning, days after his government was fiercely criticized about how it responded to the disaster. The PM took responsibility for the slow response of the rescue operation..

"I offer my apology for having been unable to prevent this accident from happening and unable to properly respond to it afterwards. I believed I, as the prime minister, certainly had to take responsibility and resign." the PM said.

The captain and all crew members of the ship rescued themselves leaving 300 school children, teachers and other passengers to their fate. They have all since been arrested and facing charges ranging from criminal negligence to abandoning passengers. The confirmed death toll as of today is 187, while the rest are still missing and presumed dead.

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293 Missing As South Korea Ferry With Students On Board Sinks

293 people, mostly students who were on a high school trip, are missing after a ferry capsized & sank in dense fog off South Korea's coast last night, local media reports.

A South Korean government spokesman told reporters this morning that there had been 459 people on board the ferry, including 325 students, 15 teachers, 89 other passengers and a crew of 30.

So far 164 people have been rescued, three confirmed dead, while hundreds are still unaccounted for. One rescued passenger told The Associated Press he believed that many people had been trapped inside the ship when it sank.

The ferry had been traveling to the southern tourist island of Jeju when it sank just three hours from it's destination. The distress call was made around 8p.m last night, 11 hours into the trip.

Dozens of boats, helicopters, 30 navy and coast guard vessels and divers are around the area trying to find survivors. The ferry has a capacity of about 900 people and was built in Japan in 1994.

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