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| Bereaved family members walk toward the end of a dock to board a ship which will take them near the semisubmersible recovery ship carrying the ferry Sewol in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, Sunday. / Yonhap |
By Lee Kyung-min
Nine more bone fragments were discovered early Sunday on the deck of a semisubmersible recovery ship to which the salvaged ferry Sewol is secured, but they are believed to be those of animals, not the remains of missing victims, forensic scientists said Sunday.
"Although we believe the bones are from an animal, we cannot say that with 100 percent certainty. Additional DNA testing is needed, which will take about a month," a National Forensic Service (NFS) official said at Mokpo New Port in South Jeolla Province, where the recovery vessel docked, Friday.
The families rushed to the port, only to be disappointed again by the NFS assessment that the bones were not human.
"I wish the officials had told us about the possibility of the bones not being our loved ones so as not to get our hopes up only to be crushed," a mother of one of the victims said.
The same episode happened last week.
Beside the bone fragments, the authorities also collected a passport and a credit card from mud sludge seeping from the ferry, both belonging to the Sewol captain, Lee Joo-seok. A small bag and a ballpoint pen were also discovered but it is not clear who the owner was. Lee is serving a life sentence at the Suncheon Correctional Institution, South Jeolla Province, after the Supreme Court upheld a high court ruling in 2015 that found him guilty of murder, negligence and dereliction of duty.
More belongings are expected to be collected, as the ferry continues to drain.
This is crucial to proceed with the next move, which is moving the ferry to a dry dock. Currently, the Sewol weighs 13,460 tons, but this should go down to 13,000 tons.
A member of the special investigation committee in charge of searching and investigating the Sewol in the dock said Sunday that the committee was considering drilling 21 holes to speed up the draining process.
"If we can't make it lighter now, we will have to wait until April 15 when the water levels will be fit for work," said an anonymous committee member. But, the committee's plan quickly drew opposition from family members of the missing victims, who have stressed keeping the ship intact .
Meanwhile, the ministry said Shanghai Salvage, the Chinese contractor hired by the ministry to raise the sunken ferry Sewol, will initiate an underwater search of the seabed, where the ferry was lying, in an effort to recover the remains of the nine unaccounted for.
Twenty divers in teams of two will work shifts to closely inspect the area where a fence (200-meter-long 160-meter-wide 3-meter-high) was set up earlier.
On Sunday, Mokpo New Port was also busy Sunday with visitors who wanted to see the ship. A large number of visitors also visited the memorial altar set up 200 meters away from Paengmok Port in Island Jindo, to pay respects to the victims.
