The first funerals were held on Sunday morning for six victims who died in the Sewol ferry sinking.The families of two teachers and four students from Danwon High School bid farewell to their loved ones at separate funerals held in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province on Sunday. Victims included Nam Yun-cheol, a teacher who died while trying to rescue students, and Kim Cho-won, a first-year teacher who died on her birthday. Families of four other students were to hold funerals on the same day, but postponed

(Yonhap)Divers have removed the first bodies from the South Korean ferry that capsized nearly four days ago with 476 people on board, the coastguard said Sunday."Divers broke through the window of a passenger cabin just before midnight and pulled out three bodies," a coastguard official told AFP.All three were wearing lifejackets, the official said, adding that two were male but the gender of the third was not immediately confirmed.The official said they were the same three bodies that had been

The operator of a ferry that sank off South Korea's south coast earlier this week, leaving hundreds dead or missing, has been involved in many other accidents at sea, records showed Saturday.Chonghaejin Marine, the owner of the ill-fated ferry Sewol, has been in marine accidents involving engine trouble and collisions every two to three years in the recent past, the records showed.Three weeks before Wednesday's sinking of the 6,825-ton Sewol, one of Chonghaejin's passenger ships collided with a

MOKPO, South Jeolla Province – The head of Mokpo Hankook Hospital on Saturday called for the survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster to be given time and space to recover from their ordeal. Eleven survivors are being treated at the hospital, and eight more have been discharged after treatment. 　“Please do not ask more than what is absolutely necessary,” Dr. Ryu Jae-kwang, Mokpo Hankook Hospital director, told the press.“The chief of the neuropsychiatry department, Dr. Jung Jae-jin, has told me thr

JINDO, South Jeolla Province -– Bodies recovered on Friday from the waters off Jindo Island where the ferry Sewol sank Wednesday morning show that the victims had died a few days ago, a Crime Scene Investigation expert said here Friday night. “It’s difficult to tell exactly when they died because calculating the (time of death) for bodies found in the water and land are different,” said the examiner, wishing to remain anonymous. He said he was not authorized to speak on the matter.“The bodies sh

Rescuers accelerated their search operations to find survivors on the sunken ferry Sewol in waters off Korea’s southwestern coast on Friday as grieving families made desperate appeals for more efforts to save their loved ones.Navy and Coast Guard divers injected air into the ship for possible survivors and installed buoys to keep it from sinking further. They also entered the ship’s interior for the first time since the 6,825-ton vessel capsized on Wednesday, but failed to find survivors. (Yonha