Altered Sewol Records

[Anchor Lead]

On day one of the first parliamentary inspection into the Moon Jae-in administration on Thursday, presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok raised the suspicion that the former Park Geun-hye administration fabricated its report on the Sewol ferry tragedy by altering the timeline when Park received her first briefing on the ferry sinking. Here's more.

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Presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok says the government has found documents and files of the former Park Geun-hye administration that may serve as evidence that records on Park Geun-hye's first response to the Sewol ferry tragedy were fabricated. The presidential chief of staff said that former President Park received the first report of the tragedy at 9:30 a.m. on the day of the ferry sinking, but six months later the time was changed to 10 a.m.

[Soundbite] Im Jong-seok (Presidential Chief of Staff) : "This can only be interpreted as an attempt to bridge the gap between the time the former president received the first report and the time of her first response."

Im also raised the allegation that the former administration illegally modified the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae's crisis management guidelines. At the time, the guidelines said that the chief of the National Security Office was in charge of crisis management, but the person in charge was later changed to the minister of the Interior and Safety without due procedure. Im said that the records were fabricated in line with a statement from the former presidential chief of staff, Kim Ki-chun, saying that the National Security Office was not a disaster control tower. Im has requested an investigation into the fabrication.

[Soundbite] Im Jong-seok (Presidential Chief of Staff) : "We view this as the most deplorable act of the former administration and believe that the truth must be revealed."

The presidential office said it has not verified the fabrication with officials from the Park Geun-hye administration.