South Korea lifted part of a warship from the sea today, nearly three weeks after it mysteriously exploded and sank with dozens of sailors trapped inside.
Salvage workers reportedly found "many" dead bodies from the retrieved vessel.
Fifty-eight crew members were rescued shortly after the 1,200-ton Cheonan split into two after exploding March 26th during a routine patrol near the tense border with North Korea. Divers have recovered two bodies but 44 other crew members are unaccounted for.
A huge naval crane hoisted the stern - where most of the missing sailors are believed trapped - a day after divers succeeded in tying the wreckage with chains.
Rescuers and salvage workers who boarded the stern to pump out water saw "many" dead bodies, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a military official it didn't identify.
TV broadcaster SBS carried a similar report, but South Korea's navy and Joint Chiefs of Staff said they cannot confirm the reports.
SBS footage showed the stern being loaded onto a barge after it was hoisted about four metres above the sea surface.
Salvage workers planned to board the stern later today to search for the missing crew. It was to be moved aboard the barge to a naval base to investigate the cause of the explosion while the rest of the ship is to be salvaged as early as next week, military officials said.
No cause has been determined. There has been some suspicion but no confirmation of North Korean involvement in the sinking, which occurred near the two Koreas' disputed western sea border - a scene of three bloody inter-Korean naval battles.
South Korean officials have said they will look into all possibilities including that the ship might have been struck by a North Korean torpedo or a mine left over from the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, thus leaving the Koreas still technically at war.
North Korean officials have reportedly denied their country's involvement in the blast. Last week, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper in Seoul reported that North Korea military delegates told Chinese officials during their trip to Beijing that Pyongyang was not behind the ship's explosion.
The sinking was one of South Korea's worst naval disasters. In 1974, a ship sank off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and coast guard personnel. In 1967, 39 sailors were killed by North Korean artillery.
South Korea has asked the US, Australia, the Britain and Sweden to send experts for a joint investigation. A team of eight US investigators, led by Rear Admiral Thomas J Eccles, arrived in South Korea earlier this week, according to South Korea's defence ministry.
Bad weather and heavy seas have impeded efforts to locate the 44 missing crew and salvage the wreckage of the Cheonan.
Reuters