The death toll from the ferry disaster rose to 113 Tuesday afternoon as the search mission continued.According to reports, the number of bodies recovered from the sunken ferry Sewol reached 113 as of about 7:02 p.m. The death toll, which stood at 87 at the end of Monday’s search, has been rising quickly since the early hours of Tuesday. The number of people unaccounted for now stands at 189.There were 476 crew and passengers onboard the ship, which sank Wednesday about 20 kilometers off the coa

South Korean authorities widened their investigation into the cause of the ferry disaster on Monday by arresting four crew members and banning others involved from leaving the country. Prosecutors on Monday barred the family that owns Chonghaejin Marine Co., the operator of the ill-fated ferry Sewol, from leaving Korea.The Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office took the measure as part of an expanding probe to identify whether the ship’s renovation and the crew members’ lack of safety education pl

The controversy surrounding the conduct of the crew on the Sewol ferry expanded further Monday with an eyewitness alleging that the ship’s first mate may have failed to relay the evacuation order.As new accounts feed the growing controversy, the death toll continued to rise as divers recovered more bodies from the ship’s wreckage some 20 kilometers off the coast of Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province. Early Monday, divers recovered five bodies thought to be students from Danwon High School, push

Behind the tragic ferry tale engulfing the country and its people in despair lies two key characters wanted as suspects for questioning over the sunken ship off the southwest coast.They are the owners of a company that owns Chonghaejin Marine Co., the owner and operator of the Sewol ferry, in which hundreds of passengers, mostly high school students, remain trapped and missing.They are brothers, surnamed Yoo, who have a combined 38.88 percent stake in I-One-I Holdings, a management consulting fi

Hong Ga-hye doing interview on KBS a few years ago then again on MBN in 2014A Korean woman who made a false claim in a television interview about the delayed rescue operation of the capsized ferry Sewol turned herself in late Sunday, police said.The South Jeolla Provincial Police Agency on Saturday issued a warrant to detain the 26-year-old woman, surnamed Hong, who claimed that the Coast Guard told civilian divers to “kill time” and that some divers had confirmed survivors inside the sunken shi

(Yonhap)Public criticism is mounting against some government officials and politicians accused of inappropriate conduct as the nation grieves for the lives lost in the Sewol ferry accident.Song Young-cheol, a senior official at the Ministry of Security and Public Administration, has become a target of criticism after he tried to take a photograph of himself in front of the room for victims’ families at a port terminal on Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province, near the wreck site. Song was caught b

(Yonhap)JINDO, South Jeolla Province ― Panic-stricken and fumbling for responses, the crew of the Sewol ferry dithered over the evacuation of passengers in the crucial final moments before it sank, a transcript released Sunday revealed.The transcript suggests that the chaos may have added to the death toll that could eventually exceed 300. Many people followed the captain’s initial order to stay below deck, where it is feared they remain trapped.In the final nerve-wracking moments before the ves

Families and friends tearfully bid farewell to loved ones as funeral services were held over the weekend for victims of the ferry that sank off the southwestern coast of the country last week. On early Monday, the funeral service was held for the Danwon High School vice principal.The 52-year-old vice principal, surnamed Kang, committed suicide on Friday, two days after hundreds of his students drowned or went missing in the ferry sinking. Before he hung himself, Kang wrote in a suicide note that

The government’s clumsy handling of the ferry disaster is further deepening the despair and anger of the families of the victims.The grief-stricken families have been infuriated by the flawed first responses to the sinking of the ferry Sewol in waters off the country’s southwestern coast, the conflicting numbers of survivors and the slow rescue process.Their anger came to a head last Sunday as the rescue process did not pick up pace despite their tearful appeals for more aggressive efforts to se

President Park Geun-hye on Monday condemned the captain and crew of the doomed ferry Sewol who fled and abandoned hundreds of passengers in the sinking vessel, comparing what they did to an act of murder.“Above all, the actions of the captain and some of the crew members were unacceptable from the viewpoint of common sense. It was like an act of unpardonable murder,” she said during a meeting with senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae.Park’s denouncement came a day after a radio transcript between