4 more arrests as ferry salvage talks split families

The South Korean authorities have arrested four more crew members from the ferry that sank last week, bringing the total number detained to 11.

As the 156th body was pulled from waters where the ferry Sewol sank a week ago, relatives of the nearly 150 still missing pressed the government to finish the grim task of recovery soon. But the work was reaching a new, more complicated phase, with an official saying divers must rip through cabin walls to retrieve more victims.

Looming in the background is a sensitive issue: When to bring in the cranes and begin the salvage effort by cutting up and raising the submerged vessel. The government has warned that the work might eliminate air pockets that could be sustaining survivors, but there is little hope that anyone will be found alive.

“Now we think we have to deal with this realistically,” said Pyun Yong-gi, whose 17-year-old daughter is among the missing.

“We don’t want the bodies to decay further, so we want them to pull out the bodies as quickly as they can.”

That view is not shared among all relatives of the missing, however. Jang Jong-ryul was sensitive about the mere mention of the word “salvage” and said most families don’t want to think about it.

The number of corpses recovered has risen sharply since the weekend, when divers battling strong currents and low visibility were finally able to enter the submerged vessel.

But Koh Myung-seok, spokesman for the government-wide emergency task force, said the work is becoming more difficult, and divers must now break through cabin walls.

“The lounge is one big open space, so once in it we got our search done straight away. But in the case of the cabins, we will have to break down the walls in between because they are all compartments,” Koh said.

The government has not said when it intends to begin the salvage effort, though it has said it will be considerate of families of the missing. “Even if there is only one survivor,” Koh said, “our government will do its best to rescue that person, and then we will salvage the ferry.”

The victims of the April 16 disaster are overwhelmingly students of a single secondary school in Ansan, near Seoul.