South Korean ships and aircraft resumed the hunt Sunday for 46 sailors still missing after a warship sank in choppy waters near the border with North Korea following a still-unexplained explosion.
The 1,200-tonne navy corvette with 104 crew on board went down in the Yellow Sea late Friday after being ripped in two by the blast in one of South Korea's worst naval disasters.
Only 58 sailors have so far been rescued after the sinking of the Cheonan near Baengnyeong island, and hopes for the remaining crew were fading fast, with water temperatures only a few degrees above freezing.
The incident happened near the disputed sea border between North and South Korea, scene of bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002, but officials in Seoul have not said there was any evidence Pyongyang was involved.
"The most important thing at this moment is the rescue of surviving sailors. Utmost efforts must be exerted in carrying out the rescue mission in the belief that missing crew members could still be alive," President Lee Myung-Bak told a security meeting Sunday, according to spokesman Park Sun-Kyoo.
Lee also ordered a thorough fact-finding with all possibilities taken into account, warning against "jumping to conclusions" prematurely, Park said.
Defence ministry spokesman Won Tae-Jae told a briefing it would take "a significant time to reach a reliable conclusion" about the cause of the blast.
Families of the missing sailors, on a visit to a navy command on the western coast and to Baengnyeong island, protested over a lack of information and progress on locating and rescuing the crew.
Navy frogmen, who had earlier failed to reach the sunken ship because of strong winds and rough waves, resumed work on Sunday along with a 3,000-tonne salvage ship and two 730-tonne mine-detecting boats.
A US military salvage ship is also set to join the rescue effort Monday, Seoul's defence ministry said.
"The ship was torn apart and the stern sank immediately," Choi Won-Il, captain of the Cheonan, told relatives of the missing on Saturday.
Kim Jin-Ho, a seaman on a local passenger ship that was bound for Baengnyeong, described Friday evening's horrific scene to YTN television.
"Survivors were screaming for help," Kim said. "As the ship was sinking, they were hanging onto the front part of the deck, shouting: 'Save me!'"
The Joint Chiefs of Staff office spokesman Lee Ki-Sik told parliament Saturday that he believed many of the missing sailors might be trapped inside the sunken ship.
The 88-metre (290-foot) craft was said to carry missiles, torpedoes and other weaponry and munitions. However survivors believe the impact came from outside, Won said Saturday.
A number of possible causes have been suggested by observers -- an accidental onboard explosion, a blast caused by hitting rocks or sea mines, or a deliberate outside attack.
Seoul said there were no abnormal military movements at the time on the North Korean side of the maritime border, and the South's military has since been cautious about blaming the North's military.
In Washington, the US State Department said it had no evidence of North Korean involvement.
The two Koreas have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended only in an armistice and tensions remain high.
Last November the navies of the two Koreas exchanged fire in the area and a North Korean patrol boat retreated in flames with unknown casualties.
The North refuses to accept the maritime border known as the Northern Limit Line, which was drawn up by United Nations forces after the war. It says the line should run further to the south.
Source: AFP