AFP, Seoul :
The operation to recover bodies from the ferry that sank off South Korea last month has been suspended due to heavy seas, a spokesman said on Saturday, amid concern that many of the missing may never be found.
Seventeen days after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank, 228 people have been confirmed dead with 74 still unaccounted for.
“Divers were unable to dive late Friday and early today due to fast currents and high waves whipped up by gusty winds”, Coastguard spokesman Ko Myung-Suk told journalists.
More than 100 divers were on standby, waiting for the waves to die down, he said.
Dive teams have been working in challenging and sometimes hazardous conditions.
They have to grope their way down guiding ropes to the sunken ship, laying on its side on the seabed at a depth of 40 meters (132 feet).
