South Korean President Lee Jae Myung attended a memorial ceremony in Ansan on Wednesday marking the 12th anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster, becoming the first sitting president to attend such a commemoration. The 2014 sinking killed 304 people, most of them teenagers on a school trip, after the overloaded vessel capsized. Lee said he felt a "heavy sense of responsibility" and pledged to eliminate the prioritisation of cost over safety, vowing the state would never again fail to protect its citizens' lives.