Current Events

Families of Sewol tragedy victims angered when their deceased sons receive conscription notices

Posted by jubilantj182 pts Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Military Manpower Administration made a blunder that incited the anger of the public, particularly the surviving family members of the Sewol tragedy victims.

It was reported that the administration sent conscription notices to 92 male students who are believed to have perished in the Sewol tragedy.

News of this blunder became public when Seongnam City's mayor Lee Jae Myung wrote about the issue on his Twitter.

He posted, "I've come to visit Ansan. As I was talking to a surviving family member of Donghyuk, she told me that a notice of physical examination for conscription came for her son. The entire family cried that night. They cried that this is a country that doesn't care..?."

Following the mistake, a rep from the Military Manpower Administration told Yonhap News in an interview on January 18, "This past sixth we sent notices of physical examinations for military drafting to 92 victims [of the Sewol tragedy]. We are incredibly apologetic and we're sorry for hurting the families [of the victims]."

Some people have pointed out that the families may have received the letters because they never reported the children as 'dead' subsequent the sinking of the ferry. That didn't stop the family members from expressing their grief, saying, "The country is acting in a way that killed our sons a second time around."

One of the mothers who received the notice lamented, "I cried all night and cried again. There are still victims who haven't been found and we can't report [our son's] death because the truth of the tragedy has yet to be revealed, and what kind of country sends a notice like this?"