US ATC are not obligated to check readbacks and challenge. .
Is this true ? In rest of the world you are obliged .
EVA obviously had no SA as exhibited that they happily turned towards terrain with no obvious issue
Well , in the rest of the world you always have to follow ATC vectors, as a Controller takes over responsibility for terrain avoidance when vectoring.
A simple correction/instruction like : "Break-Break . EVA15 turn right immediately heading 180" . would have solved the problem. and we would not be here discussing it.