The altar of incense and portraits of the 304 victims of the sinking of the Sewol ferry were moved from Gwanghwamun Square with the agreement of the victims’ families. The portraits were moved to the basement floor of Seoul City Hall, where they will stay temporarily until the victims’ families decide where to place them permanently. 

The sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16, 2014, was one of the largest disasters in recent Korean history. A total of 304 people, of whom 250 were students from Danwon High School in Ansan, Gyeonggi, were traveling by ferry to Jeju Island on a field trip.  When the ferry began to tilt to its port side in the waters of Jindo Island, passengers were told to remain put without further information from the crew, while the captain was one of the first to escape the sinking ferry. A total of 476 people had been on the ferry and only 172 people were rescued, including 23 members of the 29 crew. 

Tents were set up at Gwanghwamun Square in July 2015, where the bereaved families staged a hunger strike calling for a thorough probe into the disaster. However, there still has not been a truth-finding undertaking or punishment for those involved. “It is heartbreaking for the families to remove the memorial site before they succeed in bringing those who are responsible to justice and finding the truth,” a representative of the victims’ families said. “However, we accept the relocation because we are well aware that Gwanghwamun Square belongs to the citizens.” The demolition of the tent should be a beginning, not an end, and the memory of the day 0416 should be remembered by all people.