Seoul – Two barges and a semisubmersible ship will begin work Wednesday to raise the sunken Sewol ferry and move it to a port where it can be searched for passengers’ remains and clues as to why it sank, local media reported.
Once recovered, the ferry, 145 metres long and nearly 7,000 tons in weight, would be moved to Mokpo port, the country’s Oceans and Fisheries Ministry said, according to the news agency Yonhap.
There, authorities would look for the remains of passengers still listed as missing, the report said.
The work of raising the ship is to be done by Shanghai Salvage, a state-run company from China, Yonhap said.
The Sewol sank on April 16, 2014, on the way from Incheon to Jeju Island.
Of the 476 people on board the stricken ferry – mostly teenagers on a school outing – just 172 survived, including senior crew members who were among the first to leave.
Former president Park Geun Hye promised in 2015, on the first anniversary of the disaster, to raise the sunken ferry.
