SKorea: We mismatched bodies from ferry disaster

As 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 emergency task force acknowledged “there have been cases where the victims were wrongly transferred.”

Remains will be released 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.

Search officials, including a navy spokesman and a diver, said 35 of the ferry’s 111 rooms have been searched. They said 48 of the bodies were found in a large room built to accommodate 38.

The ferry sank April 16 on its way from Incheon port to the southern tourist island of Jeju.

Obama arrived Friday afternoon at the Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, and presented President Park Geun-hye with an American flag that flew over the White House the day the ship sank.

“So many were young students with their entire lives ahead of them,” Obama said, invoking his two daughters, both close in age to many of the ferry victims. “I can only imagine what the parents are going through at this point, the incredible heartache.”

More than 80 percent of the 302 dead and missing were students from a high school in Ansan, south of Seoul.

Obama also said he was donating a magnolia tree from the White House lawn to Danwon High School in honor of the lives lost and as a symbol of friendship between the U.S. and South Korea.

Eleven crew members, including the captain, have been arrested on suspicion of negligence and abandoning people in need. Prosecutor Yang Jung-jin of the joint investigation team said Friday that the cause of the sinking could be due to excessive veering, improper stowage of cargo, modifications made to the ship and tidal influence. He said investigators will determine the cause by consulting with experts and simulations.

The ferry Sewol was carrying an estimated 3,608 tons of cargo, said Moon Ki-han, a vice president at Union Transport Co., which loaded its cargo. That is more than three times what an inspector who examined the vessel during a redesign said it could safely carry. It also far exceeds what the captain claimed in paperwork: 150 cars and 657 tons of other cargo, according to the coast guard.