Man arrested for claiming US-South Korean drill caused ferry sinking
A South Korean man has been arrested for spreading an Internet rumor that a U.S.-South Korean military drill caused a passenger ferry to sink off the country’s southwest coast, according to the National Police Agency.
The Sewol went down April 16, leaving about 300 people, mostly high school students, dead or missing.
The incident, which is being attributed to overloading and lax adherence to safety standards, has caused an outpouring of grief and anger at the government. President Park Geun-hye has offered several apologies.
Police have cracked down on government critics — as well as detractors of the victims — under a law that bans spreading false information that harms someone’s reputation.
An NPA official said 39 people, more than half of them teenagers, have been investigated for spreading rumors about the accident or defaming the dead, their families or the government. Three have been arrested, including a 50-year-old man, identified only by his last name of Shin, after the South Korean navy filed a complaint over an internet posting that said “the ferry Sewol sank because it deviated from its course due to the joint South Korea-U.S. exercise.”
Shin posted a photograph of a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine operating off South Korea’s west coast, and claimed the Sewol changed course to avoid the sub. Police said the photo was “randomly” taken from the internet and was unrelated to current U.S. military activity in the region.
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