The families of passengers still officially listed as missing from the sunken ferry Sewol demanded Wednesday that the government come up with a thorough plan to find and recover the bodies.

   The call came after a badly decomposed body, presumed to be that of a woman, was found inside the submerged ship Tuesday afternoon, more than six months after the ferry sank in waters off the southwestern island of Jindo, leaving more than 300 people dead in one of the country's deadliest maritime disasters.

   After running into obstacles, divers retrieved the body from the fourth-deck female bathroom a day after its discovery, officials at the site said. They said the remains will be sent to a mortuary for positive identification using DNA screening.

   "We demand that the government review the search plan for November and come up with a new thorough search plan," the families said in a press release.

   On Monday, the family members said they had voted against salvaging the ship and asked the government to continue its search operation.

   The outcome of the vote was made public hours after a private diving company announced its decision to pull out of the joint operation with the government and military after three months, citing "various circumstances."

   The 6,825-ton ferry Sewol sank on April 16 en route to the southern resort island of Jeju. Of the total number of people on board, most of whom were high school students, only 174 were rescued. (Yonhap)