Gov't to decide whether to recover Sewol this week

SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- The government will make the final decision later this week on whether to salvage a passenger ferry that sank last year along with the salvage method, based off the feasibility test results, the ruling party said Sunday.

"(The government) will wrap up the technical review on the salvage project as soon as possible, and announce the final results before the end of this week," Cho Hae-jin, senior deputy floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a briefing, after a government-ruling party meeting.

The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank off the country's southwest coast on April 16 last year, killing 304 people, mostly high school students on a school excursion. Its first anniversary fell on Thursday.

With nine people still missing, there has been growing demand to salvage the ship in order to determine the exact cause of the accident and to find the missing bodies.

President Park Geun-hye pledged last week to raise the sunken ferry as soon as possible and to take all measures to recover the bodies of the nine missing victims.

The government earlier released an interim outcome of the feasibility study, which said the physical recovery of the sunken ferry is technically possible, along with five feasible methods.

The project is expected to cost from 100 billion won (US$91 million) to 200 billion won, and take up to 18 months depending on weather conditions.

brk@yna.co.kr
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