The Cabinet approved on Tuesday a package of new bills to deal with the aftermath of the deadly sinking of a ferry off the country's southwest coast seven months ago.

The three bills approved in the Cabinet meeting, presided by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, focus on efforts to investigate and punish those who are fundamentally responsible for the ferry accident in April as well as ways to compensate victims and reorganize the much-denounced government rescue operation system.

The 6,825-ton ferry en route to the southern resort island of Jeju sank off the country's southwestern island of Jindo on April 16, killing more than 300 people, most of them teenage students on a school trip.

Rival parties had since been in a fierce parliamentary wrangling over devising the so-called special Sewol law before passing the package of bills in a political compromise on Nov. 7.

Under the newly-enacted laws, the government will launch a 17-member team to find out who is responsible for the ferry sinking. The special investigation team will be staffed on recommendations from the bereaved families of the ferry victims for a one-year probe to start the beginning of next year. The duration of the probe could be extended up to six more months.

The laws also newly allow measures to confiscate the wealth of those who caused deadly accidents, hidden under others' names in order to better compensate victims from such accidents.

The government will also set up a national safety agency and reconfigure the home affairs ministry under the newly-passed laws.

The package needs ratification from President Park Geun-hye before officially going into effect.

The latest legal efforts come as the government is faced with severe public criticism over its public safety management system following the ferry accident.

Investigators have earlier found that cargo-overloading on the illegally-remodeled ferry was the technical cause of the ferry's sinking.

The botched initial rescue action by the Coast Guard, who were sent to the accident site, resulted in the heavy death toll, with fingers pointed at the government's corruption-ridden personnel decisions as well as shady ties between government officials and the shipping industry. (Yonhap)