By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
The body of a missing sailor was found Saturday from the remaining half of the sunken Navy frigate Cheonan as the Navy and a civilian salvage team pulled the wreckage above the surface to drain water from it.
The body was identified as Petty Officer 1st Class Park Seong-gyun, who was born in October 1989 in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.
Following the retrieval, the bow was pulled above the surface and placed onto a barge for a more thorough search for missing sailors.
As of 4:00 p.m., 58 crewmembers were rescued and 40 confirmed dead with six others remaining listed as missing.
The 1,200-ton warship broke in two and sank on March 26 near the disputed maritime border with North Korea in the West Sea after an unexplained explosion.
The ship's stern, containing the bodies of 38 sailors trapped inside, was pulled from the water last week.
On Thursday, military drivers retrieved another sailor's body in the ship's funnel that had been separated from the main wreckage.
Most of the bow section of the ship, except the mast, appeared to be intact, including a 76mm gun and glass in the ship's bridge.
It has been almost a month since the frigate with a crew of 104 sank after the mysterious blast, but the exact cause of its sinking has yet to be determined.
Military experts and inspectors at the scene claim that an ``external explosion'' ― possibly from a torpedo fired by a submarine ― was the likely cause of the incident, heightening speculation that North Korea was behind the naval disaster.
Pyongyang, however, has denied any link to the incident, labeling such allegations as fabrications made by ``traitors'' in the South.
The accident took place near the de factor sea border of the Northern Limit Line where two Koreas fought bloody skirmishes in 1999, 2002 and last November.
Ruling and opposition parties plan to launch a National Assembly fact-finding committee to investigate the tragic sinking,
Floor leaders of both said the probe will be carried out over two months upon parliamentary approval, but could be extended for another month, if necessary.
A bill on the establishment of a bipartisan panel will be put to a floor vote in an Assembly plenary session Wednesday, they said.
The joint panel will be composed of 20 lawmakers ― 10 from the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), eight from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), and two from other minor parties. A GNP lawmaker is expected to chair the committee.
In an effort to improve transparency, the government has also invited specialists from the United States, Australia, Sweden and Britain for a joint investigation into the cause of the sinking.
