South Korean prime minister resigns over ferry sinking
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SEOUL: South Korea's Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won tendered his resignation on Sunday over the sinking of a passenger ferry that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
“I offer my apology for having been unable to prevent this accident from happening and unable to properly respond to it afterwards,” he said.
“I believed I, as the prime minister, certainly had to take responsibility and resign.”
The government, along with almost all other branches of officialdom, has come in for fierce criticism over the disaster, and the handing of the rescue operation.
“I wanted to resign earlier but handling the situation was the first priority and I thought that it was a responsible act to help before leaving.
“But I've decided to resign now not to be any burden on the administration,” he said.
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Comments (26) Closed
Apr 27, 2014 07:13am
I still remember Zardari taking a trip during the worst floods in Pakistan to promote his personal agenda when 70% of the country was under water and thousands lost everything including family members. Everyday we have hundreds of people dying due to terrorism. But none of those in responsibility position in Pakistan including Prime minister, Chief of Army Staff (army policies have destroyed Pakistan) take any responsibility to the welfare and security of the people of Pakistan.
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Apr 27, 2014 08:09am
amazing.. we have people dying daily.. daily ..... not a single minister ever resigned.... our lives.... r not lives.. those in charge..not responsible or what?
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Apr 27, 2014 08:10am
Great nation. Great Prime Minister. Future belongs to such countries.
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Apr 27, 2014 08:14am
Hats off to South Korean PM!
What a custom of taking the responsibility!
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Apr 27, 2014 08:38am
Salute to the Honourable Prime Minister of South Korea for tendering his resignation over ferry sinking incident. Though he is totally innocent in this incident but look at his greatness, sense of responsibility!
Pakistan needs such great great leadership.
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Apr 27, 2014 08:54am
And we claim ourselves belong to a better religion.
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Apr 27, 2014 10:14am
This is what we call it THE LEADERS.....! A greatest message for the world
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Apr 27, 2014 10:44am
Our Pakistani leaders should learn some lesson from Koreans, who are not ready to leave their seat on supreme court orders also until forcefully thrown out and rejected in election.
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Apr 27, 2014 11:47am
Something our so called "leaders" who never tire of lecturing on honesty, good governance and transparency should take a lesson from. Had such a tragedy struck Pakistan, the first thing our government would have done was to form a commission. Rest would have been history.
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Apr 27, 2014 12:23pm
A great gesture indeed. This is the showcase of a leader who does not like to remain glued to the chair if he can't deliver. An example for others.
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Apr 27, 2014 01:16pm
My dear countryfellows unforunately we dont have any leader but only madary.who come on national stage play make us fool.fillup their ----what name should I give.and they go.Thats it.
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Apr 27, 2014 01:20pm
There was a time when pakistan called an 'Asian Tiger'. Then koreans visited pakistan and they were amazed at progress . They requested assistance from the government of pakistan. Now look at the present scenario , how much koreans have improved themselves in every field. As for pakistan, it is better if we dnt mention our performance.
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Apr 27, 2014 01:36pm
Khawaja Rafique and Khawaj Asif-are you reading this. He took responsibility and resigned. Train incident in Balochistan where many lost their lives and the public loss of confidence on defense minister abusing his own countries army and both still hanging on receiving salaries that neither has earned.
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Apr 27, 2014 01:46pm
@Iqbal khan
What does religion have to do with this ? There is nothing wrong with the religion. It's the followers especially who are quick to criticize and somehow without following their religion hold religion responsible.. Nonsense..
And please rest assure Islam is a great religion....it's the followers who need to work on themselves and follow the religion..
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Apr 27, 2014 01:52pm
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY...............is what self-respecting, honorable national leaders do.
We have examples of exactly the opposite ...Zardari during the floods.......the recent Thar disaster and behaviour of the Sindh government......SHAMELESS is too small a word to describe this.
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Apr 27, 2014 02:13pm
@Iqbal khan Dear why you are blaming the religion by relating it with the non-Islamic activities of our leaders,politicians etc., ? How you can put a blob on religion -- if most of us are not following it in truly way.It is our fault that we are not practicing the holly teachings of Islam in its best manner as these were taught us.I think it would be wrong to put the ball in the court of religion.
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Apr 27, 2014 03:47pm
North Korea & South Korea are very different...one is cruel and one is innocent!
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Apr 27, 2014 04:26pm
This is how honourable people behave. This is how people with values take responsibility. This is how honest people behave. My salute to the South Korean Prime Minister. This would never happen in Pakistan. NEVER.
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Apr 27, 2014 06:03pm
wow what a spirit.....took responsibity
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Apr 27, 2014 06:04pm
mr chung you really won my respect....
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Apr 27, 2014 09:15pm
It reminds us of a similar incident in 2006, when a South Korean Minister resigned due to a train accident.
On the other hand, when the then Railway Minister in Pakistan was asked by the media to resign on moral grounds,his historic response was, "Why should I resign? Was I the driver of the train that met accident?".
The joker was no other than Sheikh Rasheed who still lectures on morality appearing on different TV channels everyday!
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Apr 28, 2014 02:20am
Insha Allah, such leaders will be in Pakistan very soon. We can just wish or pray!
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Apr 28, 2014 06:04am
Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won has no direct or indirect link with the ferry accident except that it happened while he was the chief executive of the country. Whereas the govt of Pakistan has failed to provide protection to its citizens from various terrorist organizations and they are not even commenting on the deaths of policemen and other law enforcement officials.
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Apr 28, 2014 09:41am
The resignation of South Korean Prime Minister should be a lesson for Pakistani Authorities who fail to accept responsibility with thousands killed each year. No minister or Pakistan Prime minister has ever accept responsibility for those slained.
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Apr 29, 2014 01:53pm
This is all due to the people and we Pakistani always ready to put up with everything caused by our leader or poor system and the fact we lack unity therefore we are always unable to show vibrant protest agaisnt evil, we are divided religiously, politically, ethinicaly, etc. There is nothing which join us together. We can never force our leader to step down.
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Apr 29, 2014 01:59pm
If our leader do not resign, at least they may take action against wrong doing. The accident which took place in Sindh due to construction of road and claimed many lives but no one bother to take action against responsible. The fact in our country there is no respect for human being and no value for human life.
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