Five N. Koreans sail across tense border to S. Korea

Yahoo – AFP, July 1, 2017

South Korean ships patrol the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea (AFP Photo/
KIM JAE-HWAN)

Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters Saturday, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South.

The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"Coast guards guided the boat to safety at (the eastern port of) Mukho," a South Korean coast guard official told AFP.

Government authorities were questioning the five North Koreans, he added.

The incident came after a North Korean fishing boat with eight people on board developed an engine trouble and drifted into South Korean waters off the country's eastern coast late last month.

Days later, South Korea repatriated all the eight, as they had requested.

Early last month, two people out of four crew members on another North Korean fishing boat which drifted to the South refused to return home. They were allowed resettle in the South.

There has also been a spate of overland border crossings in June.

Two North Korean soldiers walked across the heavily fortified border and a civilian swam across a river to defect to the South.

Over the decades since the peninsula was divided, dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the Demilitarised Zone, which extends for two kilometers either side of the actual border.

A North Korean soldier defected to the South in September last year, and a teenage North Korean soldier defected in June 2015.

In 2012 a North Korean soldier walked unchecked through rows of electrified fencing and surveillance cameras, prompting Seoul to sack three field commanders for a security lapse.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have fled their homeland but it is very rare for them to cross the closely guarded inter-Korean border, which is fortified with minefields and barbed wire.

Most flee across the porous frontier with neighbouring China.

South Korea raises sunken ferry: Yonhap

Yahoo – AFP, Hwang Sunghee, March 22, 2017

Barges during a salvage project to bring the sunken Sewol ferry back to
surface in the sea off the southwestern island of Jindo (AFP Photo/Handout)

Salvage operators raised part of South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry early Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, nearly three years after the disaster killed more than 300 people and dealt a crippling blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.

Emotional parents of victims -- the vast majority of the dead in the country's worst-ever maritime tragedy were schoolchildren -- had earlier urged people to pray for a successful recovery.

"As of 3:45 am (1845 GMT Wednesday), part of the Sewol's structure, which is believed to be its stabilizer, can be seen above the water with the naked eye," an official from the Oceans and Fisheries Ministry was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

It is expected to take around eight days to fully raise the ship and move it to the port of Mokpo, and another four days to move it onto a dry dock, he added.

The vessel was lying more than 40 metres (130 feet) below the waves off southwestern South Korea and the operation, originally scheduled for last year, had been pushed back several times because of adverse weather.

It is thought that nine bodies still unaccounted for may be trapped inside the sunken ship, and raising the ferry intact has been a key demand of the victims' families.

Raising the Sewol sunken ferry (AFP Photo/Laurence CHU , Gal ROMA)

"I am a mother who just really misses her daughter. Please pray for us so we can go home with Eun-Hwa," said Lee Keum-Hui, one of a handful of relatives who have been living in makeshift homes at Paengmok, the closest port to the wreck, since the accident.

"We will be grateful if you pray with us so that the last remaining victims can return to their families," she said, breaking down.

Other bereaved family members have been maintaining a vigil at a camp on a hilltop on Donggeochado, the nearest island to the site, just 1.5 kilometres away.

Yellow ribbons -- a symbol for the victims of the disaster -- hang on nearby trees, their colour faded by the course of time.

"My heart is pounding," said father Jung Seong-Wook of the decision to go ahead with the lift. "I have mixed feelings that I cannot put into words. I'm also a little scared."

In a tense atmosphere during the day, another father nervously watched through binoculars, trying to get a glimpse of the operation. Some 50 bereaved family members went out to sea by boat to watch the proceedings, he added.

Two enormous barges were positioned on either side of the 6,825-tonne ship and air bags inserted for the salvage effort, which is being led by a Chinese consortium.

Beams were installed by digging through the seabed underneath the wreck, which was lying on its side, and cables attached to bring it painstakingly towards the surface.

Once two-thirds of it is exposed, a semi-submersible will be positioned underneath to raise it out of the water and transport it Mokpo to carry out investigations and search for the missing.

A monk bowed in prayer before a memorial to victims of the Sewol ferry 

disaster, at Paengmok harbour on the southern island of Jindo (AFP 

Photo/Ed Jones)

Wilful negligence

A senior official from the maritime ministry said it took three hours to raise the wreck one metre off the seabed in what was initially a feasibility test.

The ministry then decided to go ahead with the full lifting, it said in a statement. The operation is expected to take three days.

The disaster and its aftermath gripped South Korea and overshadowed the presidency of Park, who stayed at her residence for seven hours in the crucial initial phase of the sinking.

She has never specified what she was doing, sparking wild rumours including a tryst and cosmetic surgery.

A permanent Sewol protest site targeting her was subsequently set up in the centre of Seoul, with effigies of the head of state on display alongside pictures of the dead schoolchildren.

Negligence over the sinking was one of the grounds for which parliament impeached Park in December, although the constitutional court ruled that it was not an impeachable offence when it upheld her dismissal on other charges earlier this month.

Donggeochado island has a population of only around 300, but the once-a-day ferry to it was packed with reporters Wednesday and at least one broadcast truck.

Investigations into the disaster, in which 304 people died, concluded it was largely man-made -- the cumulative result of an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay, inexperienced crew and a questionable relationship between the ship operators and state regulators.

Even though the vessel took around three hours to sink, those on board were never ordered to evacuate, while the crew escaped to safety.

Captain Lee Jun-Seok was sentenced to life in prison for "murder through wilful negligence" and 14 other crew members given terms ranging from two to 12 years.

South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry moves a step closer to reaching port https://t.co/cObM847pqu pic.twitter.com/9uVD4yYnhs

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 25, 2017

Related Article:

Captain sentenced to jail in Sewol ferry case

China fines foreign shipping firms

Chinese authorities have imposed multimillion dollar fines on several overseas shipping companies accusing them of price fixing. This is the latest case involving Beijing's scrutiny of foreign firms.

Deutsche Welle, 28 December 2015

China on Monday fined seven major Korean, Japanese and European shipping companies that transport vehicles for automakers a combined 407 million yuan (around $65 million, 59 million euros) on price-fixing charges.

Investigators found Europe's Wallenius Wilhelmsen, South Korea's EUKOR, Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and other shippers improperly coordinated bids and routes to keep prices high, said China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) - the top state planner and one of several agencies tasked with oversight of monopoly cases.

An eighth shipper, Japan's NYK Line, was also implicated but escaped a fine by cooperating with the authorities, the NDRC said. The biggest penalty of 284 million yuan (about $45 million) was imposed on EUKOR Car Carriers Inc.

The commission accused the companies of mutually agreeing to raise shipping costs and using unfair means to set prices - mainly on routes linking China with North America, South America and Europe.

The latest penalties target "roll-on, roll-off" shippers that move cars, trucks and construction equipment aboard specialized vessels carrying hundreds and sometimes thousands of vehicles.

The NDRC said the companies had already acknowledged responsibility and apologized.

Sweeping investigations

The case follows sweeping investigations into foreign firms in China in sectors ranging from technology to autos.

Business groups say the secretive and abrupt way investigations are conducted is alienating foreign companies. But regulators deny foreign companies are treated unfairly.

Regulators have investigated or penalized auto makers, dairies and technology suppliers under China's 2008 anti-monopoly law in an effort to force down prices Chinese consumers complain are too high.

In August last year, the Chinese government levied a combined 1.24 billion yuan fine on 12 Japanese auto parts firms for price-fixing.

And in perhaps the biggest anti-monopoly penalty imposed by Chinese authorities to date, US chipmaker Qualcomm was fined 6 billion yuan ($975 million) in February on charges it abused its dominance in wireless technology to charge "unfairly high" licensing fees.

sri/hg (AFP, AP)

Netherlands, South Korea in Charge of Jakarta Sea Wall Study

Jakarta Globe, Dion Bisara, September 04, 2015

The Jakarta sea wall will create a huge reservoir in the north coast of Jakarta,
acting as a flood control system and a water source for the surrounding population.
(ID Photo/Zabur Karuru)

Jakarta. The Netherlands and South Korea have pledged a total of $19 million in grant funding to help Indonesia conduct a study for the second and third phase of its sea wall project off the coast of Jakarta.

South Korea is setting aside $9.5 million for research on undersea currents and soil structure for the project, dubbed National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD).

The Dutch, meanwhile, have allocated 8.5 million euros ($9.5 million) for a follow-up study, Indonesia's Public Works and Housing Ministry said in a statement released on Thursday.

Officials from the three countries signed a letter of intent for the joint study on Thursday.

The South Koreans are set to begin their part by the end of this month, said Lucky Eko Wuryanto, deputy for infrastructure at the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The study is expected to reach conclusion by 2017, before the government has to decide whether to continue the sea wall project.

The second and third phase of the  massive endeavor will create a huge reservoir in the north coast of Jakarta, acting as a flood control system and water source for the surrounding population.

The Indonesian government, with help from the Netherlands, started construction to strengthen existing retaining walls on the coast last October as part of the first phase of NCICD.

Related Article:

'Great wall of Jakarta' plan to combat floods

South Korea vows to get tough with illegal Chinese fishing

Yahoo – AFP, Jung Ha-Won, 7 May 2015

A South Korean coastguard cutter arrives at the country's northernmost

island of Baengnyeong (AFP Photo/Danny Kim)

South Korean fishermen who work the flashpoint maritime border with North Korea tend to be a resilient bunch, but these days a larger, more powerful neighbour is making them lose sleep.

"North Korea is nothing compared to the Chinese fishing ships," said Choi Won-Jin, who has fished the crab-rich waters around his home island of Daecheong for decades.

Daecheong is one of five "frontline" islands whose proximity to the disputed border with North Korea means they are manned by thousands of South Korean soldiers and bristling with artillery units and bomb shelters.

A South Korean coastguard vessel patrols

 near the country's northernmost island of 

Baengnyeong (AFP Photo/Danny Kim)

But all that weaponry has failed to guard against what Choi sees as the biggest threat to the livelihood of the islands' fishing communities -- the "invasion" of Chinese trawlers.

According to official estimates, more than 1,000 Chinese fishing ships illegally accessed exclusive South Korean waters around Daecheong last year, with only four coastguard ships on hand to pose a deterrent.

The numbers have been growing every year as China's increasing affluence and appetite for seafood pushes more fishermen to venture beyond its overfished waters.

Smaller, wooden Chinese ships sneaking into South Korean waters were once tolerated in an area where the top priority has always been guarding against potential incursions from North Korea.

'Nothing left'

But in recent years, the small boats have given way to larger steel trawlers who engage in bottom trawling -- dragging a large, weighted net across the sea floor -- and sweep up "everything in their path," Choi told AFP.

"By the time they are gone, we have nothing left. It's all gone, including our fishing pots," he said.

Around 2,200 Chinese vessels have been stopped and fined by South Korea for illegal fishing in the past four years, and the number of arrested fishermen jumped from two in 2010 to 66 in 2013.

There were only five arrests in 2014, but coastguard officials said that was largely due to all resources being diverted to the lengthy rescue and recovery operation that followed the Sewol ferry disaster in April that year.

Chinese captains are well-organised, said coastguard commando Lee Kyung-Hak, and frequently chain their ships together "like a big floating city" in the event of a confrontation.

Crew members often arm themselves with steel pipes and knives, and have been known to throw burning gas canisters at officers trying to board their ships.

Overwhelming numbers

"We are trying our best to drive them off our territory... but the sheer number of them sometimes feels overwhelming," Lee told AFP.

Under growing domestic pressure to crack down harder on the Chinese fishing 

vessels, South Korean officials have signalled a tougher line with the start of this 

year's fishing season in April (AFP Photo/Danny Kim)

A recent study estimated that 675,000 tonnes of fisheries products were illegally taken from South Korean waters in 2012 by China -- with a value of around 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion).

"If anything, the situation has worsened since then," said Lee Kwang-Nam, head of the Fisheries Policy Institute in Seoul who authored the 2014 study.

According to Lee, the undermanned coastguard only manages to seize or arrest less than one percent of Chinese poachers.

"Our fisheries resources are relatively well-preserved thanks to strict regulations... but may face serious shortages if this pace keeps up," he told AFP.

Under growing domestic pressure to crack down harder on the Chinese fishing vessels, South Korean officials have signalled a tougher line with the start of this year's fishing season in April.

"We were greatly outnumbered and overwhelmed by them last year... but we've had enough," said Yun Byoung-Doo, the chief of the Incheon coastguard which guards the Yellow Sea border islands.

Yun said the coastguard would use firearms, including handguns and onboard cannon more actively "if deemed necessary."

China says be 'reasonable'

Beijing's foreign ministry, when contacted by AFP, did not directly comment on Seoul's toughened stance against illegal fishing, but urged it to "enforce the law in a reasonable way, and ensure the safety and lawful rights and interests" of Chinese fishermen.

"China will continue to strengthen the education and guidance for its fishermen," it said in a statement faxed to AFP.

China's increasing affluence and appetite

 for seafood pushes more fishermen to 

venture beyond its overfished waters

 (AFP Photo/Danny Kim)

Two Chinese fishermen have been killed in violent clashes with the South Korean coastguard since 2012, prompting angry protests from Beijing.

Seoul insists the violence is initiated by the Chinese crews and point to the stabbing death of a South Korean coastguard member in 2011 by a Chinese fisherman.

South Korean fishing vessels have not been blameless themselves when it comes to illegal fishing in waters as far away as the seas off West Africa.

But the government has moved to eradicate the practice and South Korea was taken off the US list of countries engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in February, and then from the EU list last month.

The fishermen of Daecheong island hope the government can be equally effective in curbing the illegal activities of the Chinese trawler fleets.

"This is one of the biggest crises I've ever seen on this island," said Kim Neung-Ho, whose father and grandfather also made their living in the waters off Daecheong.

"At this point we're not really counting on them all going away, because that's just impossible," Kim told AFP.

"We just hope that there will be fewer of them. Just a little fewer," he said.

Related Articles:

Thailand Tells Indonesia It Will Tackle Illegal Fishing

Thailand Faces EU Threat of Seafood Ban Over Lax Fishing Rules

Thailand Faces EU Threat of Seafood Ban Over Lax Fishing Rules

Jakarta Globe, Jonathan Stearns, Apr 21, 2015 

In this handout photograph released by Indonesia’s Ministry of Fishery on
 April 8, 2015, hundreds of rescued foreign fishermen mostly from Myanmar and
Thailand are gathered during an operation at the private Indonesian fishing firm
 Pusaka Benjina Resources located in remote Benjina island of Maluku
province. (AFP Photo/Ugeng Nugroho/Ministry of Fishery)

The European Union threatened to ban imports of seafood from Thailand because of concerns about illegal fishing, a step that would curb trade of more than 600 million euros ($641 million) a year.

The European Commission said Thailand has been too lax in the international fight against unlawful, unregulated and unreported fishing. Thai authorities have six months to enact “a corrective tailor-made action plan” or risk an EU trade ban, said the commission, the 28-nation bloc’s regulatory arm.

“Failure to take strong action against illegal fishing will carry consequences,” EU Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday in Brussels. “Should the situation not improve, the EU could resort to banning fisheries imports from Thailand.”

The EU is seeking to use the size of its seafood market to prod exporting countries around the world to promote sustainable fisheries. The total value of EU imports of fish products last year was 20.7 billion euros, of which Thailand accounted for 642 million euros, according to the commission.

The EU already prohibits imports of seafood from Guinea, Cambodia and Sri Lanka because those three countries allegedly haven’t done enough to tackle illegal fishing. The bloc last year added Belize to the European fisheries blacklist before lifting the curbs on that nation following “reforming efforts” by authorities there.

In its statement today, the commission withdrew warnings it had issued against South Korea and the Philippines about illegal fishing. Both countries have since improved their legal systems and are “now equipped to tackle illegal fishing,” the commission said.

Bloomberg

A fisherman formerly held in slave-like conditions by a Thai-owned fishing firm in

Benjina, Maluku, shows evidence of abuse. (Antara Foto/Humas Kementerian

Kelautan)

Related Article:

Joko praises Minister Susi’s Work on Combating Illegal Fishing

Title of World’s Biggest Ship Shifts as Rates Decline

Jakarta Globe,Bloomberg, Kyunghee Park, Mar 06, 2015

A photo made available 15 January 2015 shows shipping containers on board
 the CMA CGM Marco Polo container liner vessel, at the port of Kwai Chung,
Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, 14 January 2015. (EPA Photo/Alex Hofford)

This is how much size matters in the shipping industry: Bragging rights for the world’s largest container ship have changed hands four times in as many months — and will soon shift again.

With weak freight rates encouraging shipping lines to send as many goods as possible in a single voyage, Samsung Heavy Industries, the world’s third-biggest shipbuilder, is constructing four vessels capable of carrying 20,100 20-foot containers — enough to fit about 203 million iPads — for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines of Japan. Another two ships of the same size will be built by Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding.

The seaborne arms race comes even as overcapacity has led to a plunge in shipping rates since late 2010 and four straight years of losses for the industry.

Some lines have responded by driving their vessels more slowly to save fuel and by scrapping older, less efficient ships. Others have decided to go as large as possible to cut costs by as much as 30 percent per voyage.

“Shipping companies are favoring bigger ships because of the benefits. With bigger ships you can move more goods at one go, helping to reduce your costs,” said Park Moo Hyun, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities in Seoul. “But at the same time, it raises concerns about whether these ships can be filled.”

Mitsui O.S.K. will receive its new ships from Samsung Heavy by August 2017. The vessels will be 400 meters long — equal to four soccer fields, longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall — and 58.8 meters wide, Samsung Heavy said on March 2.  They also will have fuel-saving features.

Samsung Heavy expects more 20,000-container vessels will be ordered in the first half of this year because of the economies of scale they offer, the company said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.

Mitsui O.S.K. believes switching to larger ships “will enhance our competitiveness,” Tetsutaro Kozai, assistant manager of the company’s public relations office, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg. The company expects the new ships it has ordered “will be the largest in operation for some time,” he said.

Whether ship sizes continue to grow depends on builders finding ways to make even larger vessels that will be structurally sound amid the punishment of rough seas.

Ports will need ever-deeper shipping lanes and terminal operators will require cranes capable of stretching all the way across the wider decks.

That could be a problem for ports on the US West Coast, where Los Angeles and Long Beach, California can’t handle ships holding more than about 12,000 containers.

That — plus the fact that there are no ports of call between Asia and the US West Coast — means the supersize vessels mainly ply Asia-Europe routes.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk started the recent trend toward bigger vessels in 2011 when it ordered 20 “Triple-E” ships from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. At the time they were the biggest vessels in the world, capable of carrying more than 18,000 20-foot containers each.

A ship of that size can cut costs by about 30 percent per trip compared to a 13,000-box ship, based on a bunker fuel price of $600 a ton, according to Drewry Maritime Equity Research.

Even at current fuel prices a larger vessel is still about 15 percent cheaper per voyage, Drewry said.

Most vessels used now on the Asia-Europe route can fit 14,000 containers, according to Park at Hana Daetoo. There currently are more than 100 of these ships in service, he said.

Maersk Line, the world’s largest container shipping company, currently operates 15 Triple-Es and expects five more to be delivered in the first half of this year.

“Maersk moved the market with big ships, and people are seeing Maersk’s results,” said Rahul Kapoor, a Singapore-based director for equity research at Drewry. “So people are thinking that’s the way to go forward.”

Maersk Line doubled its after-tax operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2014, to $655 million. Maersk Line will soon place its first order for new ships since 2011, probably in the first half of this year, Nils Smedegaard Andersen, chief executive of A.P. Moeller, said last month.

“We may order Triple-E ships, but don’t expect an order of 20 or 30 ships this year because we need to time it carefully so we grow with the market,” Andersen said last month.

The Triple-Es didn’t keep Maersk Line on top of the size rankings for long: China Shipping Container Lines took the title in November with a ship able to carry 19,100 20-foot containers. That was overtaken barely a month later when Mediterranean Shipping  launched a ship able to carry 19,224 containers.

In late January, Imabari received an order for 11 ships capable of carrying 20,000 containers. Those briefly became the world’s biggest planned ships — until Mitsui O.S.K. placed its order this week.

Driving the push for size is the collapse of shipping rates over the past four years. Spot cargo shipping rates to Europe from Asia dropped to $938 per container in the week ended Feb. 27, down 6.5 percent from two weeks earlier and 15 percent lower than at the end of February 2014, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

Shipping lines have tried to raise rates in recent months, largely without success, and some are trying again to raise rates from March 15, according to shipping-data provider Alphaliner.

If anything, though, slowing global demand and new vessels set to enter service this year could drive levies even lower, Alphaliner said in its weekly newsletter.

Hyundai Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Samsung Heavy — the world’s three-biggest shipbuilders — have the technology to build ships that can carry as many as 25,000 boxes, suggesting that the title of world’s largest ship will soon shift again.

“There’s no end to it. You will have someone soon displace Mitsui O.S.K. as the largest shipowner,” Drewry’s Kapoor said.

Bloomberg

32 Indonesians Missing After S. Korean Fishing Vessel Sinks

Jakarta Globe & AFP, Dec 02, 2014

The 1,753-tonne Oryong 501 operated by South Korea's Sajo Industries. The
 South Korean fishing vessel sank with 60 people aboard in the Bering Sea.
(AFP photo/Yonhap)

Jakarta. Three Indonesian nationals have been rescued but 32 are still missing after a South Korean fishing vessel sank off Russia’s far east coast on Monday.

The 1,753-ton Oryong 501, operated by South Korea’s Sajo Industries, went down in the western Bering Sea.

The trawler was carrying 60 people, including one Russian inspector, 11 South Koreans, 35 Indonesians and 13 Philippine crew members.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said that as of Monday evening eight crew members had been rescued, including three Indonesians. The condition of the three, however, is still unknown.

One South Korean sailor has been confirmed dead, Agence France-Presse reported.

The 36-year-old trawler was fishing for pollack when it sank in stormy weather.

Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi has been in contact with her South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-Se, the ministry said.

A Russian search and rescue team and the US Coast Guard are searching the accident location. A South Korean Rapid Response team has also been deployed to Russia.

The names of the missing Indonesians have been compiled and their family’s will be informed, the Foreign Ministry said.

The Oryong 501 fishing trawler was carrying 60 people

when it went down in the western Bering Sea

Related Article:

Russia finds empty lifeboats from sunken S. Korea fishing boat

Captain sentenced to jail in Sewol ferry case

The captain of a South Korean ferry which sank in April has been sentenced to 36 years in prison. A court found Lee Joon-seok guilty of negligence.

Deutsche Welle, 11 Nov 2014

The 36-year prison sentence was handed down by a court in South Korea on Tuesday, after a five-month long trial.

According to the AP news agency, the court said Lee was professionally negligent and abandoned his passengers, but he was acquitted of the most serious charges of homicide. If convicted on those charges, he could have received the death penalty.

"We find it hard to conclude that the defendants...were aware that all of the victims would die because of their actions and they had an intention to kill them," the trial's three judges said, according to the AFP news agency. "Therefore the murder charges are not accepted."

Lee, 69, has apologized for abandoning the passengers but said he didn't know the actions would lead to so many deaths.

The captain, along with three other senior crew members, was charged with homicide and willful negligence. Eleven other crew members faced lesser charges.

Search for bodies stopped

South Korean officials also announced Tuesday that the search for the bodies still missing after the April sinking was called off.

The bodies of 295 people have been recovered, but nearly seven months after the accident, nine are still missing.

Oceans and Fisheries Minister Lee Ju-young told reporters there was only a remote chance of finding those bodies.

"The government deployed as many resources as possible ... to bring the last missing person to the families," Lee said. "But the situation in the ship has become too difficult for search operations to continue."

On April 16, the Sewol ferry capsized while en route from the South Korean mainland to the holiday island of Jeju. Of the 476 people on board, 325 were high school students on a field trip. Only 75 of the students survived.

se/lw (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Beijing blasts ROK coast guard over shooting of Chinese fisherman

Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-10-11

A CT scan released by the ROK shows a bullet wound on the left abdomen
of the dead fisherman, Oct. 10. (Photo/Xinhua)

China on Friday voiced strong discontent over heavy handedness by the Republic of Korea (ROK) coastguard, which caused the death of a Chinese fisherman.

The fisherman was shot dead by the ROK coastguard Friday morning in a confrontation over alleged illegal fishing in ROK waters.

"China is shocked by the violent law-enforcement of the ROK side," said foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a routine press conference.

China demands South Korea begin an immediate and thorough investigation of the incident, appropriately punishing those responsible for the fisherman's death, and inform China promptly of the progress and outcome of the investigation, said the spokesperson.

Song Houmu, 45, the skipper of the 80-ton fishing vessel Noyoung 50987 was shot by an ROK coastguard officer on board his own ship in waters some 144 km west of Wangdeung Island, North Jeolla province, and died later in hospital.

Hong said the Chinese Embassy and Consulate to the ROK immediately lodged a protest, sent consular officers to the scene, and will closely follow developments in the case.

Badly decomposed body found in South Korea is fugitive ferry tycoon, say police

Businessman Yoo Byung-un headed family that owns operator of Sewol ferry which sank in April, killing 300

The Guardian, Agencies, Tuesday 22 July 2014

Policemen transport a stretcher with a body believed to be that of Yoo
Byung-un Photograph: Yonhap/Reuters

South Korean police said on Tuesday that a body found last month in the south of the country belonged to a fugitive businessman who headed the family that owned the operator of a ferry that capsized in April, killing more than 300 people.

Police said at a press conference that a badly decomposed body found on June 12 had been identified by DNA evidence as well as fingerprints as that of Yoo Byung-un, who had been the subject of the country's largest manhunt.

The discovery ended a massive, months-long manhunt for the 73-year-old billionaire whose family owns the Sewol ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co.

The heavily decomposed corpse was recovered on June 12 from a plum field in Suncheon, a city 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Seoul.

Tests matched the DNA of the body to Yoo's elder brother, leading police to believe the body was that of the reclusive billionaire.Yoo went on the run shortly after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank on April 16 with 476 people on board, including 325 high school students.

The number of confirmed dead currently stands at 294, with 10 victims still unaccounted for.

The ferry disaster stunned South Korea and unleashed widespread public anger, as it emerged that incompetence, corruption and greed had all contributed to the scale of the disaster.

President Park Geun-Hye and her administration have been bitterly criticised for their response to the tragedy.

The captain and 14 surviving crew members are currently on trial, some of them on charges of wilful homicide which carry the death penalty.

A summons was issued for Yoo shortly after the sinking, but he refused to surrender to police and eventually went on the run.

A reward of 500 million won ($490,000) was offered for information leading to his capture, and 100 million won for that of his eldest son, Yoo Dae-Kyun.

Yoo was wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, related to regulatory violations.

Many of his family members have been arrested, including his wife and his brother. A daughter is fighting an extradition bid from Paris.

Earlier this month, South Korean prosecutors filed embezzlement charges against his 71-year-old wife, Kwon Yun-Ja.

The charges were unrelated to the ferry sinking, and involved the alleged embezzlement of money from a splinter religious group established by Kwon's father.

In June, thousands of police officers conducted a raid on a major church complex looking for Yoo.

South Korea Offers Half-a-Million Dollar Reward For Ferry Operator Owner

Jakarta Globe, Reuters, May 28, 2014

Coastguard boats and search and rescue teams take part in recovery operations
 at the site of the Sewol ferry, off the coast of the South Korean island of Jindo
on April 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Nicolas Asfouri)

South Korea has hiked to nearly half a million dollars its reward for information leading to the capture of Yoo Byung-un, the head of the family that owns the operator of a ferry that capsized and sank last month, killing more than 300 people.

The figure of 500 million won ($490,000) being offered by authorities after a week of futile searching for Yoo is a tenfold increase from the 50 million set initially, and is the maximum allowed by criminal law as a reward for fugitives.

“This is the largest amount ever offered by an investigative authority as reward,” said a prosecution official involved in the case.

 Yoo is wanted on charges of embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion stemming from a web of business holdings centered around a holding company owned by his sons that ran the ferry operator.

The authorities have also offered 100 million won for tips leading to the arrest of one of the sons. The other is believed to be in the United States. The trio have all evaded summons to appear for questioning and have arrest warrants outstanding.

Yoo’s daughter, who ran one of the companies in the sprawling business empire, was arrested in France, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.

Divers are still searching for the bodies of 16 people who remain missing and will begin preparations to cut through the hull of the sunken ferry near the stern, where many of the missing are believed to be, the coast guard said on Tuesday.

The prosecution said the ferry, the Sewol, was structurally defective after a remodelling to add capacity and was massively overloaded with cargo. Making a sharp turn, it failed to restore its balance, and capsized.

Strong currents in the area have made search and recovery operations extremely difficult.

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