Roundup: S. Korea marks 5th anniversary of Sewol ferry disaster

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SEOUL, April 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean people on Tuesday mourned nationwide for the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster to mark the fifth anniversary of one of the country's worst maritime tragedies, demanding the truth behind it be ascertained.

On the day five years earlier, the 6,825-ton passenger ship Sewol sank off the southwestern coast near Jindo island, killing 304 people, most of them high school students on a school trip to the southern resort island of Jeju.

Trauma remained among a lot of people, including the bereaved families, as the exact cause of the disaster had yet to be determined.

The association of the bereaved families recently called for President Moon Jae-in to launch a special investigative team for the re-investigation into the ferry sinking from the very beginning.

"Thorough efforts will be made to ascertain the truth about the tragedy and punish those responsible," Moon said in response, noting that the Sewol disaster has been "always etched in my memory."

In Gwanghwamun square in central Seoul, people waited in a long line on the weekday to mourn for the victims in front of the "Memory and Light," a makeshift wooden facility set up last month to replace the memorial altars that had stood in the square for the past five years.

On view in the facility are group photos of the teenage victims, a large-screen TV showing the ceremony relocating the memorial portraits of the victims, and the "memory wall" bearing the names of all victims inscribed.

Under the Seoul city government's plan to refurbish the square, the memorial altars were torn down and replaced by the facility that was set up to serve as a space for remembering the Sewol tragedy and helping raise awareness towards safety-related incidents.

"I came here on the belief that many more people must visit this space to mourn for the victims. I hoped to show that people still keep the memory of the disaster," a university student in her 20s who declined to be identified said, sitting in front of the wooden facility.

The student expressed rage against those who said they felt "sick of" bringing up the disaster, saying people seeing the tragedy tiresome should feel shame as numerous people, who should have been rescued, were sacrificed. Enditem

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