Fishing boat capsizes in South Korea killing 10 people

A South Korean fishing boat has turned over off the country's southwest, leaving at least ten people dead in the latest such incident in the Asian country.

According to the South Korean Coast Guard, the wreckage of the 9.77-tonne Dolphine was found on an island after it went missing near the southwestern island of Chuja Saturday.

Authorities say the bodies of ten people have been recovered so far in the waters while three people have been rescued. It is not clear how many passengers were on board the vessel.

A massive operation has been launched involving dozens of ships and divers to search for the missing.

One survivor of the deadly incident said the boat capsized "in an instant."

"I was sleeping when the boat's engine went off and the captain told us to get out and water started to fill the boat," said the survivor, identified only by his surname Park.

Park added that he and other survivors had to stay over 10 hours on top of a piece of the boat before being rescued.

Last year, about 300 people, most of them schoolchildren died when Sewol, a passenger ferry, sank off the southwest coast. The disaster sparked a national outrage and fierce protests in the country over what was said to be an ineffective rescue operation.

Besides the vessel’s poor redesigning, many blamed the accident on regulatory problems and incompetence of South Korea’s shipping authorities. More than 50 people have been taken to the court over the incident, including 15 crew members, who were accused of leaving the students inside the sinking ferry and boarding lifeboats.

Officials afterwards promised to improve public safety measures and impose tougher punishment over violations of safety rules. However, critics believe little has changed ever since.

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