The fishing boat was found capsized about 110km east of Homigot port on March 3 (Photo: Yonhap News)
Seoul (VNA) – Republic of Korean (RoK) rescue forces have entered the fourth day scouring the country’s waters for six Vietnamese sailors who remained missing after their fishing boat was found capsized about 110km east of Homigot port on March 3.
Pohang city’s coast guards said 10 specialised vessels of the coast guard force of the nearby cities of Pohang, Ulsan and Busan, along with two fisheries vessels and three aircraft have been deployed in the search.
The searching area is from where the last signal of the capsized ship Dongkyeong 201 was detected, which is about 28km east of Pohang’s Wonpo port, to the place the shipwreck was found.
However, unfavourable weather conditions on March 6 impeded the searching effort. By 11 am of the day, rescuers had not discovered any traces of the missing Vietnamese, according to Pohang’s coast guards.
They said the missing people were likely to be drifted far away from Dongkyeong 201.
As of 4 pm of March 5, the coast guards finished searching within the ship and began to drag it to Guryongpo port of Pohang for investigation into the cause of the incident.
The 29-tonne Dongkyeong 201 lost communication with the city’s fisheries information control centre at 9:30pm on February 29 (local time) after departing from Chuksan port, Yoengdeok district in Kyeongbuk province at 2pm a day earlier. A Korean captain, 47, and six Vietnamese crewmen were on board.
The fishing vessel was found to be capsized in Japanese waters at noon on March 3. Later the same day, a body was found and is believed to be the Korean captain.
The Vietnamese sailors were sent to the RoK by Vietnam’s International Manpower Supply and Trade JSC and the Tourist, Trade and Labour Export JSC, according to a notification given by Pohang’s coast guards to the management board of Vietnamese workers in the RoK on March 2.-VNA
