President Park Geun-hye apologized to families of the victims of the sunken ferry Sewol for the government's poor response to the sinking, promising to significantly upgrade the country's safety standards to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.

Park made the remarks during a meeting with a group of representatives of victims' families at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae to hear their views and demands as she prepares measures to remedy numerous problems revealed through the disaster.

 "I apologize again for the insufficient part" in the government's response, Park said. "I believe the way to ensure these sacrifices won't go down the drain is to set right the social safety systems from scratch ... and firm up the basics of the society as if rebuilding the country."

It was the first time Park has apologized directly to the families, although she has apologized several times since last month. The previous apologizes were made indirectly during a Cabinet meeting, a luncheon meeting with a group of religious leaders and in a speech at a Buddha's birthday ceremony.

Park said she has collected a broad range of views from experts and is in the middle of putting together measures, ranging from enhancing safety systems and standards to reforming bureaucracy.

She asked the families to provide their thoughts on what should be done.

She also said the government is ready to help support the families' livelihoods.

Ahead of the meeting, the families issued a statement demanding a special law authorizing the establishment of an independent fact-finding body for a thorough and unfettered investigation into the sinking. They also called for full budgetary and institutional support for the investigative body and demanded that the government make sure those found responsible are brought to justice.

They also called for the mobilization of all resources to retrieve all those still missing.

A family representative later told reporters that their discussions with Park focused on the demands. Park told the family representatives that she feels the same way about the need for a special law, but she stopped short of clearly expressing full support for the demand, he said.

Park is expected to reflect the views of the families in a statement to the nation sometime next week. She is expected to apologize again for the poor government response to the sinking and to outline remedies to the problems revealed through the disaster.

The widespread view had been that Park would announce the statement this week because Friday marks one month after the April 16 sinking that has left 284 people dead and 20 others missing.

Most of the victims were high school students.

The apparent delay suggests that Park is taking extra caution in drawing up the statement because it is expected to be an important watershed in the ferry crisis that has left the entire country in a state of gloom and sadness for more than a month.

Presidential officials said that final touches are being made to the statement. Officials are also weighing such details as where Park should make the statement to better convey her message.

Public anger has been running high amid criticism that more lives could have been saved if the initial response had been quicker and more systematic. Cursory safety checks on the ship, insufficient safety training for the crew and other problems have also been blamed.

Park's upcoming statement has been a focus of attention in determining what reform measures she will pledge to take to upgrade the country's safety standards and how she will fulfill her promise to overhaul the bureaucracy to make it more nimble, efficient and responsive.

Another key point of focus for the planned statement is how she will reorganize the Cabinet.

Prime Minister Chung Hong-won has already offered to quit and Park plans to accept the resignation. She is also expected to replace many other Cabinet members and reorganize the presidential office in a show of determination to start anew and work hard. (Yonhap)