South Korea Ferry News: Body Found in Sunken Sewol; Death Penalty Demanded for Captain
South Korean rescue teams found another body out of the 10 missing from the Sewol passenger ferry which sunk last April.
According to CNN, the badly decomposed body was found in a women's restroom located at the center of the ferry wreckage in southwestern Korea. It is still unknown whether the victim is a male or female. After recovery and identification, the deceased will be confirmed as the 295th victim of the April 16 disaster.
NY Times reported that it has been 195 days, or July 18, since the last body -- those of the ship's cook -- was recovered from the wreckage.
"With no additional bodies recovered in more than three months, some politicians had called for an end to the search and suggested that the government hoist the ship, which is lying on its side at the sea bottom," NY Times stated.
Rapid currents and poor underwater visibility also affect the search and retrieval operation, which has been going on for three months now. CNN adds that the approaching winter in the country causes worry for the search operation officials.
Majority of those who died in the disaster were high school students on a field trip to the resort island of Jeju. The ferry was carrying a total of 476 passengers when it capsized and only 172 of them were rescued, according to the NY Times report.
The Independent adds that the Sewol ferry disaster is considered the deadliest maritime tragedy in South Korea in 44 years, with authorities blaming the incident on overloading of cargo, untimely rescue efforts, improper storage, and other negligence by the crew members.
On another update, South Korean prosecutors have demanded death penalty for Sewol ferry captain Lee Joon-seok, and life imprisonment for three major crew members, Claims Journal reported. Lee was indicted in May on homicide charges for abandoning the sinking ship, along with three major members of his crew -- a first mate, a second mate, and the engineer.
In a video taken by the coast guard, the 68-year old Lee is seen fleeing the ferry in his underwear to a rescue boat, leaving most of the passengers still on the ship to fend for themselves.
According to Claims Journal, Lee apologized for abandoning the sinking ferry but he also explained that he didn't know his actions would lead to so many of the passengers' deaths.
Survivors of the disaster claimed that there were no evacuation orders from the crew and that they were repeatedly ordered through a loudspeaker to stay on the sinking ship.
"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," Claims Journal reported.
The death penalty is the maximum legal sentence in South Korea. However, capital punishment is almost never used in the country because of a de facto moratorium. The last death penalty was issued on December 1997, as reported by Claims Journal.