And with details of any new developments...
we're joined by Kim Ji-yeon at the news center who has been following the ferry disaster
for us for the last couple of days.
The confirmed death toll, unfortunately, rose overnight.
Give us the latest numbers.
The total confirmed death toll has risen to 25.
The identities of 10 more bodies have been confirmed and EIGHT were high school students.
That puts the death toll for students from Danwon high school at 12 so far.
Now of the 16 bodies recovered since 6 p.m. Thursday, 10 are female, six are male.
The Coast Guard discovered the bodies in the open ocean and assume they floated out of
the ship as the tides shifted.
Most of the deceased were wearing life jackets, and one woman who is in her sixties was even
wearing a bicycle helmet.
What do we know more about what was happening inside... the vessel at the time it started
sinking?
It has been revealed that a control center based in Jeju island sent a warning to the
ship, telling it to evacuate all passengers.
This came four minutes after the first distress signal was sent out by the Sewol-ho ferry
at around 8:55 AM, Wednesday.
But, no passenger in the ferry tried to escape the vessel for more than an hour.
This is because an announcement sent by the crew members of the vessel told passengers
to stay put,... telling them it was more dangerous to move around.
Students were seen wearing life jackets... but were just waiting inside the ship.
This likely contributed to a much higher death toll.
But the investigation into what happened is still ongoing, with Lee Jun-suk , the captain
of the ferry, being the focal point right now.
It's being looked into whether he and around 10 of his crew members abandoned ship.
So we can all take this as a valuable lesson.
What should captains of passenger vessels do... in times of crises?
And what should we, as passengers do?
Well for starters, Captain Lee and his crew members should not have abandoned the ship
without making sure the passengers were safely off.
This is clearly laid out in a manual in the Sewol-ho ferry, in the steps to take for crew
members in case of an emergency.
In the manual it states the captain and crew members should have made an announcement to
the passengers explaining what was happening to the vessel and what they should do to escape
to safety.
And then the crew members should have stayed put to make sure that everyone was on life
vessels...
before leaving themselves.
But as you can see, not one of these regulations was followed by the captain and the crew members
of the Sewolho ferry on that fateful day.
And we hear that authorities have raided the headquarters of the ferry company...
That's right...
local authorities conducted a seize and search at around midnight on Friday on the offices
of the Chonghaejin Marine Company in charge of the Sewol ferry.
The Joint Investigative Headquarters received computer files concerning the ferry... and
with the information retrieved, the authorities are to look closely into why there was an
abrupt change in the ferry's direction...
this is being looked at as the main cause as to why the ship went down.
Let's now talk about some texts have been sent out that take cruel advantage of this
tradegy...
With the nation's focus on the rescue efforts, the government is warning about a text scam.
The text falsely indicates that it is a message from Yonhap News Agency and includes a link
to a video of the rescue operations at the site where the ferry is located.
And smartphone users who click on this link, a malicious app is installed that will leak
the personal information embedded in the device.
It then induces the users to install a fake banking app that will then extract financial
information of the users.
It is not yet sure how many are affected by this scam.
The government is trying to prevent further spread of this text and plans to distribute
a vaccine to the users.
The ferry disaster is being extensively covered by foreign media as well.
What are the responses from foreign countries?
U.S. President Barack Obama sent condolences to Korea and especially to the victims of
the ferry disaster and says he will pay tribute during a visit to the country next week.
President Obama adds that the United States has an "unwavering commitment" to its ally
in good times and bad... and says U.S. Navy personnel are at the site to help with the
rescue operation.
The head of the British Foreign Office, William Hague sent his condolences to the Korean people,
especially to the families that are waiting for news of their missing loved ones.
Hague said the British government will provide support in any way it can.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi also echoed those sentiments in similar comments.
Thank you Jiyeon for that report.