14 crew rescued from sunken Korean vessel in S. China Sea

Hong Kong and Vietnamese search and rescue teams picked up Tuesday 14 crew members -- six Koreans and 8 Myanmarese -- of a Korean freighter that sank Monday in the South China Sea.

The Koreans are Oh Min-soo, Park Hyeon-do, Lee Ho-yeon, Oh Jong-woo, Kim Yeong-shik and one who remains unidentified.

A combined 21 crew members including nine Koreans were on board the sunken 15,000-ton ship, and three Koreans and four Myanmarese remain missing.

The Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said, “Rescue workers from Hong Kong and Vietnam and the Chinese navy have been looking for the missing crew members for days.”

Quoting a rescued crew member as saying, “At the time of the accident, the waves were five meters high and we couldn’t afford to lower lifeboats. We just escaped from the ship,” the Korean government said high waves seem to have abruptly capsized the ship.

The sunken freighter was loaded with iron ore and departed from Penang, Malaysia, at 4:05 p.m. Monday. It was headed for Hong Kong when it sank in waters 563 kilometers south of Hong Kong.

The owner of the freighter and the company managing the ship’s crew set up an emergency team the same day.

From Monday morning, more than 10 relatives of the missing crew members began waiting for any news at the headquarters of the crew management company Beomjin Commercial Shipping in Busan’s Dong district.

A company source said, “We talked with a rescued crew member on the phone, and he said all six of the rescued crew members are healthy,” adding, “They`re heading to China and Singapore aboard ships that passed by waters where they were rescued.”

If the rescued crew arrive in China or Singapore, the will be returned home as soon as possible with the help of consular offices and agencies.

The Seoul headquarters of J&J Trust, the owner of the sunken ship, remained closed all day Tuesday.

A J&J source said, “As water temperatures are high and the weather is favorable, rescue operations will be continued,” adding, “Of the three lifeboats and two rescue boats, one of each is missing. We haven`t abandoned hope.”

toto@donga.com lightee@donga.com