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Comment by gtirloni

9 days ago

wow https://x.com/koryodynasty/status/1973956091638890499

> A senior government official overseeing recovery efforts for South Korea's national network crisis has reportedly died by suicide in Sejong.

21 comments

gtirloni

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covercash  9 days ago

If the US government and corporate executives had even half this level of shame, we'd have nobody left in those positions!

  • southernplaces7  9 days ago

    Not the same country but another example of a culturally similar attitude towards shame over failure: In Japan in 1985, Flight 123, a massive Boeing 747 carrying 524 people, lost control shortly after takeoff from Tokyo en route to Osaka.

    The plane's aft pressure bulkhead catastrophically exploded, causing total decompression at the high altitude, severing all four of the massive plane's hydraulic stabilizer systems and entirely tearing away its vertical stabilizer.

    With these the 747 basically became uncontrollable and minutes later, despite tremendously heroic efforts by the pilots to turn back and crash land it with some modicum of survivability for themselves and the passengers, the flight slammed into a mountain close to Tokyo, killing hundreds.

    The resulting investigation showed that the failed bulkhead had burst open due to faulty repair welding several years before. The two technicians most responsible for clearing that particular shoddy repair both committed suicide soon after the crash tragedy. One of them even left a note specifically stating "With my death I atone". (paraphrasing from memory here)

    I can't even begin to imagine a modern Boeing executive or senior staffer doing the same.

    Same couldn't be said for Japanese military officials after the tragedy though, so who knows about cultural tendencies:

    Right after the crash, helicopters were making ready to fly to the scene (it was night by this point) and a nearby U.S military helicopter squadron also even offered to fly in immediately. The local JSDF administration however stood all these requests down until the following morning, on the claim that such a tremendous crash must not have left anyone alive, so why hurry?

    As it turned out, quite a number of people had incredibly survived, and slowly died during the night from exposure to cold and their wounds, according to testimony from the four who did survive to be rescued, and doctors who later conducted postmortems on the bodies.

  • godelski  9 days ago

    You should look at the previous president of SK. Maybe a few more too... they frequently land in jail...

    I'm not sure Yoon Suk Yeol had any shame

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Yoon_Suk_Yeol

    • covercash  9 days ago

      I would also be fine with US politicians and corporate executives landing in jail. At this point, any consequences will be more than they currently face.

      1 reply →

    • strawhatguy  8 days ago

      The weird thing is 13 days later his temporary successor Han was also impeached, basically because he vetoed two bills doing investigations into Yoon. IIRC, the constitutional court wasn’t fully appointed yet. And also apparently, an impeachment is a simple majority in the Assembly, and appears the DPK (the current majority party) has been impeaching everyone they disagree with. My wife, who’s from Korea, says that Lee, the now president, apparently had a “revolutionary” past, and was thrown in jail; and also one justice from the court also had a criminal record.

      It’s pretty crazy over there, Lee’s probably safe right now just because his party’s the majority. But it also sounds like they’ve been abusing the impeachment process against the minority party.

      2 replies →

  • makeitdouble  9 days ago

    "suicide" in these circumstances is usually something else altogether.

    Even in cases it is executed by themselves, shame won't be the primary motivation.