A woman was taken into custody Wednesday for assaulting a bereaved father of one of the students killed in last year’s ferry sinking, police said.

The accused, a 66-year-old surnamed Park, was reportedly passing by a joint memorial altar for the Sewol ferry victims in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, when she saw a banner criticizing the government for its handling of the ship’s sinking, according to Ansan Danwon Police Station in Gyeonggi Province. She went into the memorial and protested the banner, slapping the 44-year-old father of one of the victims in the process.

According to a local news report, the woman also destroyed a model of the Sewol ferry at the memorial, saying that the death of the students was “their fate.”

On April 16, 2014, the ferry capsized off the coast of South Korea’s southwestern island of Jindo. The accident left 304 dead or missing, 250 of whom were students of Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

The government was severely criticized by the public for the lackluster rescue operations, which led to the disbandment of the Coast Guard and reshuffling of the government’s safety-related branches.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)