As investigators probe cozy links between the shipping industry and its regulators, Seoul has promised new monitoring and regulations for domestic passenger ships, which are not governed by international rules.
The ministry says all information about passengers will be processed electronically beginning in June, with similar changes for vehicles and cargo beginning in July. The measures are meant to fix a system that produced uncertainty about how many people were on the Sewol when it sank, and especially about the amount of cargo it was carrying.
Records about the Sewol's cargo, meanwhile, appear to have been inaccurate. A coast guard official said the captain reported 150 vehicles and 657 tons of cargo, but an official with the company that loaded the vessel's cargo said it was carrying much more: 3,608 tons.
The ministry said passengers' ID cards will be checked by officials from the ship's operator and ferry terminal, a measure that has often been skipped. Terminal operators will be ordered to better control ferry port entrances.
Black boxes that record date, time, ship location, speed, direction, weather and communications on the bridge will be installed on domestic ferries. Currently, only international ferries and freight vessels more than 3,000 tons are required to have the device, also known as a voyage data recorder. If one had been installed on the Sewol, it could have helped investigators check ship operations against testimony from the crew.