US embassy honors Sewol victims with magnolia photo

The U.S. Embassy in South Korea on Thursday posted a photo of a magnolia tree that former President Barack Obama dedicated to a high school three years ago to pay tribute to the victims of the country's worst maritime disaster.

Obama gave the tree as a gift to Danwon High School when he visited South Korea in April 2014, right after the 6,825-ton ferry Sewol capsized and sank off the country's southwest coast on April 16, leaving more than 300 people dead or missing. Many students from the high school in Ansan, south of Seoul, were among the dead.

"The U.S. honored the Sewol Ferry victims, with the gift of a magnolia tree, and now the tree is ready to bloom," the embassy said on its official Twitter account, along with its photo taken in April 2014. "Our thoughts are still with them."

The embassy also posted Obama's remarks on the tree that, "The Magnolia represents beauty, and, with every spring, renewal."

Its social media comments on the maritime disaster came amid the ongoing efforts to salvage the sunken ferry, raising prospects of retrieving the bodies of victims who have been missing for years. (Yonhap)