What We Found

Improvements, but Wrongdoing Goes On

The government lived up to its promises to pass new laws and rules that cover everything from how thorough inspections need to be, to the maximum age of ferries, to the training of crews to better deal with emergencies on the high seas.

The penalties for lawbreakers have been stiffened, and prosecutors have cracked down hard when violators are caught.

What has proved much harder to fix is the pursuit of profit at all cost and an often casual disregard for safety — problems that have long been blamed in South Korea not only for shipping disasters but also for building collapses and hospital fires.

Maritime investigators continue to find pervasive wrongdoing, especially by the employees of cargo-handling companies and by truck drivers who lie about the weight of their cargo .

“We have made a lot of changes and improvement since the Sewol incident,” said Park Han-seon, who coordinates research on maritime safety at the Korea Maritime Institute. “But what the country still needs is a safety culture where business managers put safety before profit.”

And while the government has taken aim at business practices, victims’ families have accused it of failing to set its sights on officials’ own culpability in the ferry disaster. The families are angry that senior government officials did not end up in jail, especially for the botched rescue effort.

The Coast Guard was both late to the scene and woefully unprepared to help when it finally got there.

In April, the families called on the authorities to investigate former top officials, accusing them of failing to order an evacuation of the passengers in the early hours of the disaster and over accusations that they conspired to impede investigations.

“We know who killed our children, but we are not able to punish them,” said Jang Hoon, who lost his 17-year-old son.

Mr. Jang believes the country will become safer only if top officials realize they can be held criminally accountable for their actions.