Kyunghyang Daily News carried an editorial titled "The regime which is indifferent to missing persons and shadows bereaved families" on May 20.

The editorial said:

The bereaved families urged the regime to make every possible effort to rescue all missing persons, but there are already signs of forgetting the disaster.

This was manifested in the regime's attitude towards the bereaved families, and policemen of the Tanwon Police Station in Ansan, Kyonggi Province were spotted while shadowing representatives of the bereaved families.

As this is an obvious illegal investigation, the regime must probe the truth, severely punish those responsible and make an apology to the bereaved families.

Seoul Shinmun said in an editorial on May 22 that the police were taking lamentable actions after the disaster.

The editorial said:

The police were slow in investigating the ship owner, one of those responsible for the disaster but quick in investigating bereaved families.

Policemen of the above-said police station were spotted while shadowing bereaved families. Prior to it, a police officer in charge of gathering information was caught by bereaved families in the Jindo Gymnasium.

The shadowing and espionage are obvious abuse of power and illegal investigation.

This is nothing different from the activities of the police in the days of the past dictatorial regime that gathered in secret information about the tendency and the movements of the blacklisted persons and reported them to their superiors.

No progress is made in the investigation into the ship owner who embezzled a hundred billion won and neglected his duty.