The country's top court on Thursday acquitted Kim Seok-kyun, former chief of the Korea Coast Guard, and nine other top officers, of involuntary manslaughter due to professional negligence in the 2014 sinking of the Sewol ferry, which left 304 passengers dead or missing, and 142 injured. The Supreme Court found Kim, who was head of the Coast Guard when the 6,825-ton Sewol ferry sank in waters off the country'.
Eight years after the Sewol ferry disaster took the lives of 250 South Korean students, parents say they are still struggling to come to terms with the lessons the tragedy brought to bear.