With the sunken Sewol ferry beginning to emerge from the water in a massive salvage operation that started Wednesday, focus has shifted to how to deal with missing bodies without hurting efforts to determine the cause of sinking.

The government has asserted that cutting the ship into pieces is the best way to find the missing bodies, but the victims’ families and maritime experts have suggested the measure should be taken with caution, as it would be mechanically difficult and time consuming.

“Our speculation is that those who went missing might have been trapped inside the stern of the ship. Cutting the ship into pieces is the only choice to find them,” said Kim Young-suk, head of the ministry of oceans and fisheries which is overseeing the operation.

There are nine bodies still unaccounted for since the Sewol ferry capsized in water off Jindo, South Jeolla Province, about three years ago. Despite the massive rescue operation, the government has yet to discover the location of their bodies. During the disaster, 304 people, mostly high school students, died.

Kong gil-young, a professor at Korea Maritime and Ocean University, noted that removing the stern from the ship’s body might not be the best strategy for the recovery mission because the process would require massive time and effort.

“The removal process involves welding, so it is very difficult and time consuming,” said the oceanology professor in an interview with a local media outlet. “The government should come up with an accurate assessment about which options would be best to find them.”

Some of the victims’ families disputed the government’s calculation that cutting the ship into pieces would be finished within a week. Chung Sung-wook, who lost his son in the disaster, said the process would take at least a month.

“If we can find the missing people within a week, we should cut the ship,” said Chung. "But, according to our calculation, it would take at least a month. If this is the case, I don’t think there would be much difference if we didn’t cut the ship into pieces."

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)