According to a report by Yonhap on October 18th, a coastal police vessel built at a cost of 17 billion Korean won (approximately 85 million yuan) was forced to be scrapped due to a water ingress accident caused by negligence on the part of the coastal police.
On that day, the South Korean National Assembly held a parliamentary inquiry. Member of parliament Kim Seongyo took the official internal documents of the South Korean Marine Police Agency to the scene and made them public, revealing this incident to the public for the first time.
According to reports, the incident occurred on the morning of March 25 this year, at a pier dedicated to the South Korean Incheon Coast Guard. At the time of the incident, the Incheon Coast Guard’s 312-ton patrol ship was docked at the pier for regular maintenance and repairs. According to strict regulations, on-site supervisors and safety managers from the Coast Guard must be present throughout the process to monitor the construction activities closely.
However, after the coast guard personnel assigned the ship maintenance work to an external repair company, they all left the scene under the pretext of going for lunch. Due to the lack of supervision at the site, during the renovation process, the exhaust pipes remained open, thus creating potential hazards.
As massive amounts of fuel were continuously injected into the hull, the total weight of the ship rapidly increased, and the hull began to slowly sink under the waterline. Within half an hour, the open exhaust port sank along with the hull, with seawater flowing into the engine room and flooding the central engine compartment of the warship.
When the coast guard personnel returned to the scene after finishing their lunch break, the central engine room was already flooded. A large number of electronic navigation devices had been submerged in seawater for a long time. According to reports, after months of professional technical evaluation, due to severe corrosion caused by saltwater, the final repair costs far exceeded the remaining economic value of the ship. As a result, this guard ship was ultimately forced to be scrapped.
"312 Squadron" warship power distribution box JTBC
According to the official data disclosed by Kim Sang-jo, from 2021 to September 2026, there were as many as 14 major accidents involving various types of maritime police vessels in South Korea. A significant portion of these accidents were caused by inadequate basic safety management and even astonishingly minor human errors. The total cost of repairs amounted to 364.94 million Korean won.
South Korean media reported that five days before the incident involving the flooding of the Incheon Coast Guard ships, a new '3000-ton-class' super-large flagship guard ship owned by the Central Maritime Police Department, which cost 850 billion won and had been completed and commissioned only three months ago, collided head-on with a breakwater when it entered Incheon Port due to a 'misjudgment at the scene'. As a result, the new ship was severely damaged, and the repair costs amounted to 21.5 million won.
In February last year, a guard boat of the West Sea Police also encountered a similar situation during routine duty. The crew and security personnel deserted the ship, causing it to deviate from its course and resulting in it hitting a reef. Eventually, the boat had to be scrapped.
Data also shows that among the 32 coast guard officials who were held accountable due to the aforementioned accidents in the past few years, 22 received only verbal or administrative penalties such as "warning" or "notice," or "no disciplinary action taken," with only one person actually receiving a severe penalty in the form of suspension from duty.
Jin Shan Jiao during the inquiry issued a stern warning to the Maritime Police Bureau: “These accidents are not just individual negligence, they reflect the complete slackness of organizational discipline. The Coast Guard must thoroughly investigate the reasons for repeated human errors and overhaul the command supervision system, to enforce discipline within the organization.”
