App developer apologizes after Sewol disaster date appears as sample input in hospital payment app

A mobile app used by one of South Korea's major university hospitals briefly displayed a phrase evoking the date of the Sewol ferry disaster, sparking controversy before the text was corrected. The app's developer issued a formal apology, saying it was "sincerely sorry to the bereaved families who lost loved ones in the Sewol disaster and to the people of Korea."

According to medical industry sources, the payment app used by Korea University Hospital in Seoul displayed the phrase "If the date of birth is April 16, 2014, enter 20140416" as a sample input in its family-registration patient lookup feature on Tuesday.

April 16, 2014, was the day the Sewol ferry sank while en route to Jeju Island, killing or leaving missing 304 passengers — including students from Danwon High School in Gyeonggi Province who were on a school trip.

In the aftermath of the disaster, far-right online communities, including the forum known as "Ilbe," drew widespread condemnation for mocking the victims and their families.

The app in question is Lemon Care, a patient-facing application developed by Kosdaq-listed Lemon Healthcare that is used by more than 140 general hospitals nationwide. The offending phrase has since been corrected.

In a statement posted on the company's website Tuesday, Lemon Healthcare CEO Hong Byung-jin said the company felt "an even greater sense of responsibility upon learning that the problematic screen had been found in patient apps at major hospitals across the country — apps used by bereaved families and the general public." He added that an internal investigation found the phrase "had been copied and reused without verification through successive screen redesigns since it was first written during the app's initial development."

Hong said it was "entirely the company's fault for failing, until now, to filter out a date that represents pain for all Koreans from appearing on a service screen," adding that the company "had only checked whether functions were working properly, without considering that the date could cause deep pain to someone."

According to the company, the staff members who originally wrote the phrase and were involved in its review have already left the firm, making direct disciplinary action impossible.

Hong pledged to "personally oversee the establishment and implementation of measures to prevent a recurrence" and to "make regular education and inspections mandatory for all staff who handle content." He added: "We will take this incident as the gravest warning in our company's history and reinvent ourselves as a company that puts people's feelings before technology. If the bereaved families of the Sewol disaster and the people of Korea give us the opportunity to apologize, we will seek forgiveness in whatever way we can."