SKorea: We mismatched bodies from ferry disaster
Source: AP-EXCITE
By JUNG-YOON CHOI and YOUKYUNG LEE
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - As visiting President Barack Obama offered South Koreans his condolences Friday for the ferry disaster, the South Korean government conceded that some bodies have been misidentified and announced changes to prevent such mistakes from happening again.
There have been several reports in South Korean media this week of bodies going to the wrong families, with the error sometimes caught only after the remains were taken to a funeral home. An "action plan" released by the government-wide emergency task force acknowledged that "there have been cases where the victims were wrongly transferred."
Remains will be transferred to families when there is a match using DNA testing or fingerprint or dental records, the task force said. The transfer will be temporary when a body is matched though identification or physical description, and authorities will wait for more authoritative evidence before making the transfer permanent.
Divers have recovered 183 bodies so far, but 119 remain missing and are feared dead in the dark rooms of the submerged vessel.
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A relative of a passenger aboard the sunken ferry Sewol in the water off the southern coast, prays after releasing a paper boat with messages to wish for safe return of his missing loved one written to it, at a port in Jindo, South Korea, Friday, April 25, 2014. Frustrated relatives of the scores of people still missing from the sinking of the ferry staged a marathon confrontation with the fisheries minister and the coast guard chief, surrounding the senior officials in a standoff that lasted overnight and into Friday morning as they vented their rage at the pace of search efforts. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
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