SEOUL, South Korea - South Koreans are mourning the hundreds of passengers who died in a ferry sinking a year ago. A variety of memorial services and events are planned nationwide Thursday on the first anniversary of one of the country's worst disaster.
Hundreds of grieving relatives and supporters gathered at a small port near the site of the sinking. Flags were lowered and a minute of silence was observed in Ansan, the city that lost nearly an entire class of high school students on a doomed field trip to a southern resort island.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye was expected to meet the grieving relatives before leaving for a trip to Colombia later in the day. A total of 304 people, mostly school children, died when the ferry Sewol sank.