REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi stated Indonesia was ready to send a Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team to help South Korean authorities identify bodies found in the wreckage of the sunken "Oryong 501." 

Minister Marsudi confirmed here on Friday that the governments intention to send a DVI team has been conveyed to South Korean authorities after the trawler sank in the Bering Sea, Russia, on December 1.

"We have told the South Korean government that Indonesia is ready to send a DVI team to help with postmortem identification," she said.

Marsudi emphasized that the government would be communicating and working closely with the Indonesian representatives in Petropavlosk Port (the port nearest to the incident site), Moscow, Busan, and Seoul, as well as the states counterparts.

On Friday morning, Marsudi and South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Cho Taiyoung discussed the progress of evacuation and plan to identify the bodies that were found and were being carried in an SAR ship.

"We have to have a certainty about the evacuation in progress and when will the body of the Indonesians be carried to Busan for postmortem identification," she remarked. "Yesterday (Dec 4), we sent our teams to inform the families of the victims. The police have taken the antemortem data to match them with the postmortem data when bodies are found," she added.

Regarding the search operation that is being jointly carried out by Russia, South Korea, and the US, Marsudi said the Indonesian government has learnt that the SAR team had been hindered by bad weather and a rough sea.

The toll was 16 until Friday. Of the bodies recovered so far, there are nine Indonesians, six South Koreans and one Filipinos. Among the combined 60 crew members aboard the ship, seven (including three Indonesians) were have been rescued while 37 others still missing.

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