A Hong Kong-registered merchant ship has rescued all of the 17 South Korean and Myanmarese seamen from a sunken South Korean vessel early Sunday, South Korean maritime police said.

All the 17 crewmen of the 2,518-ton South Korean vessel were moved to a lifeboat late Saturday when the vessel sank in waters 185 miles northeast of the Philippines, a maritime police spokesman said.

Upon getting a distress report, a South Korean patrol plane rushed to the scene and asked for help from the Hong Kong freighter that was sailing nearby, the spokesman said, adding a South Korean patrol boat is heading to the scene to provide safekeeping to the seamen. (Yonhap News)