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Looming in the background is a sensitive issue: When to bring in the cranes and begin the salvage effort by cutting up and raising the submerged vessel. The government has warned that the work might eliminate air pockets that could be sustaining survivors, but for some relatives that is a long-lost hope. "Now we think we have to deal with this realistically," said Pyun Yong-gi, whose 17-year-old daughter is among the missing. "We don't want the bodies to decay further, so we want them to pull out the bodies as quickly as they can," Pyun said on Jindo island, where recovered bodies are taken for families to identify.
That view is not shared among all relatives of the missing, however. One of them, Jang Jong-ryul, was sensitive about the mere mention of the word "salvage" and said most families don't want to think about it. The number of corpses recovered has risen sharply since the weekend, when divers battling strong currents and low visibility were finally able to enter the submerged vessel. But Koh Myung-seok, spokesman for the government-wide emergency task force, said the work is becoming more difficult, and divers must now break through cabin walls. "The lounge is one big open space, so once in it we got our search done straight away. But in the case of the cabins, we will have to break down the walls in between because they are all compartments," Koh said.
The government has not said when it intends to begin the salvage effort, though it has said it will be considerate of families of the missing. "Even if there is only one survivor," Koh said, "our government will do its best to rescue that person, and then we will salvage the ferry." For some relatives of the missing, speed in recovering the dead is becoming more important than shrinking hopes that their loved ones might still be alive. "I've seen the bodies and they are starting to smell. It inflicts a new wound for the parents to see the bodies decomposed," Pyun said. He and other relatives have set a deadline of Thursday for the government to recover all the bodies, though he concedes they have no way to enforce it. "We are not the ones who are actually doing it, so we know that there is nothing we can do," Pyun said.
The victims of the April 16 disaster are overwhelmingly students of a single high school in Ansan, near Seoul. More than three-quarters of the 323 students are dead or missing, while nearly two-thirds of the other 153 people on board survived. The funeral halls in Ansan are already full, Oh Sang-yoon of the task force center said in a statement. He said the center "is taking measures to accommodate additional bodies by placing mortuary refrigerators at the funeral halls in Ansan," and directing mourning families to funeral homes in nearby cities. Twenty-two of the 29 members of the ferry's crew survived, and 11, including Capt. Lee Joon-seok, have been arrested or detained in connection with the investigation. Two of the crew were arrested Wednesday, senior prosecutor Ahn Sang-don said. Ahn said an analysis of photos and video on the ship before its sinking showed the captain and other arrested crew members didn't rescue passengers, though it was their duty. Ahn said the crew members were at the ship's steering room or engine room together before fleeing the Sewol earlier than passengers.
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The boy, with the family name of Choi, called the emergency 119 number which put him through to the fire service, which in turn forwarded him to the coastguard two minutes later. That was followed by about 20 other calls from children to the emergency number, a fire service officer told Reuters. The Sewol ferry sank on April 16 on a routine trip south from the port of Incheon to the traditional holiday island of Jeju.
More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers from one high school on a field trip, have died or are missing and presumed dead. The children were told to stay put in their cabins, where they waited for further orders. They paid for their obedience with their lives. The confirmed death toll on Saturday was 187.
A relative of a missing passenger onboard the capsized Sewol ferry cries at a port in Jindo
Choi's body was found on Wednesday, a week after the sinking, at the back of the fourth deck. "I was so angry at the reality that all I can do is look at the sea and pray, but I am so grateful that he has been found and he is back," his father told the Kukmin Ilbo newspaper. "If only he had been wearing a life jacket, I wouldn't be this heartbroken... He didn't have time to call his mum and dad... He reported it to 119 and he's back now. I am so proud of him."
Grieving parents were taken by a smaller ferry to the sunken vessel on the day after the disaster, wrapped in blankets against the wind and rain. A witness quoted one mother crying to the sky: "It's my child's tears."
"I DON'T MIND DYING"
The defendants are surrounded by hostility in South Korea, all the way up to President Park Geun-hye, who has called the crew's actions murderous. Private lawyers have abandoned their cases. Even the family of a deceased crew member who was praised as a hero speaks of him with shame. The anger raises questions about the fairness of the crew members' impending trial, details of which will be worked out at a June 10 court hearing in Gwangju. All surviving crew members responsible for the ship's navigation have been charged with negligence and with failing to do their duty to protect passengers in the April 16 disaster. Authorities have recovered 288 bodies and continue to look for 16 others in the wrecked ship off South Korea's southwestern coast.
There are allegations that the ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co., dangerously overloaded the vessel and gave crew members inadequate emergency training, and some company officials also have been arrested. But they may be better able to defend themselves than the crew. The fugitive head of Chonghaejin, Yoo Byung-eun, is a billionaire. The Sewol's captain, Lee Joon-seok, reportedly made 2.7 million won ($2,635) a month. And it is the crew members, not the company higher-ups, who appeared in widely televised "perp walks" in the first weeks of the disaster, when fury was at its highest. "People say this is a public opinion trial. To put it in other words, it is a witch trial," said Kang Jung-min, a lawyer who met the captain and two crew of the Sewol while they were in custody in April. "It is possible that rulings would correspond with public sentiment, rather than judgments based on objective facts and legal principles."
Middle school students bow during a memorial service for sunken ferry Sewol chief officer Yang Dae-hong, a hero, in Incheon, South Korea. In his last phone call to his wife while the ship was sinking, Yang told her where to find savings for their teenage childrenÂ’s college tuition and hung up saying he had to go save students. His body was found one month after the accident. His brother said his face was unrecognizable and his walkie-talkie was found along with his body. The banner at top reads: "Sewol ferry chief officer Yang Dae-hong was not a coward to the end."
Kang cited early media reports about the captain and crewmembers that rendered them as evil. For example, South Korean media reported that the captain was drying his money at the hospital while passengers were still trapped in the ship, which Kang said the captain denied. The court will guarantee the rights of both the defendants and the victims and faithfully investigate evidence for a speedy and fair trial, the Gwangju District Court said in a statement. Even the family of chief officer Yang Dae-hong, who died on the ship while rescuing others, said a pang of guilt has not escaped them.
In his last phone call to his wife while the ship was sinking, Yang told her where to find savings for their children's college tuition, then said he had to go save students and hung up. Survivors said the 45-year-old returned to the sinking ship after helping them escape to safety. "People call him a hero. But he was crew on Sewol and he was responsible for taking care of the passengers. So he is a criminal," said Yang's eldest brother, Yang Dae-hwan. "If my brother is a criminal, I'm also responsible as his older brother. "I want to spend the rest of my life keeping victims deeply in my heart," he said.
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Prosecutors also requested that a district court sentence 11 other crewmembers up to 30 years in prison on charges that they were negligent and failed to protect passengers when the ferry was sinking April 16, South Korean media reported. Most of those who died in the disaster were high school students on a school trip. Capt. Lee Joon-seok and three other crewmembers from the ferry Sewol were indicted on homicide charges, alleging they were negligent and failed to protect passengers when the ferry sank. Eleven other crewmembers were indicted on less serious charges. The 15 crew on trial were among the first group of people to leave when the ship began badly listing.
An unidentified family member cries as she and others demand maximum punishment for crewmembers of the ferry Sewol during their trial in Gwangju, South Korea, Monday, Oct. 27, 2014. The ferry sank in April, killing more than 300 people.
The Gwangju District Court said it couldn't immediately confirm the news reports. The sinking, one of South Korea's deadliest disasters in decades, caused nationwide grief and fury, with authorities blaming overloading of cargo, improper storage, untimely rescue efforts and other negligence for the incident. More than six months after the sinking, the bodies of 294 people have been retrieved, while 10 others have not been found. Lee has apologized for abandoning passengers, but says he didn't know his action would lead to the mass deaths. In a video taken by the coast guard on the day of the sinking, he was seen escaping the ferry in his underwear to a rescue boat while many passengers were still on the sinking ship.
Many student survivors have said they were repeatedly ordered over a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship and that they didn't remember any evacuation order being given before they helped each other flee the vessel. Lee has said he issued an evacuation order for passengers. But he initially told reporters days after his arrest that he withheld the evacuation order because rescuers had yet to arrive and he feared for the passengers' safety in the cold, swift waters.
South Korea seeks death penalty for ferry captain - Pacific - Stripes
