Police Confirm Death Of Skorea Ferry Disaster Fugitive

South Korean police confirmed Tuesday morning that a body discovered in a rural plum field last month is that of the country's most wanted fugitive - Yoo Byung-eun, the de facto owner of the sunken Sewol ferry.



The 73-year-old had evaded authorities for weeks after the ferry sank on April 16 off the country's southwestern coast - leaving more than 300 people dead or still missing.



After investigators had concluded that Yoo - whose family owns the Sewol's operator - was responsible for lax safety management, he had faced a variety of charges from embezzlement to homicide by negligence.



Having refused to face questioning, Yoo disappeared – and remained elusive despite a near $500,000 reward being offered for his whereabouts since May.



Then on Tuesday came the revelation by police that Yoo's body had unknowingly been found on June 12 more than 400 kilometers south of capital Seoul.



The head of the local force in Sucheon, Woo Hyung-ho, told a media briefing that "DNA samples taken from the badly decomposed body exactly matched those of Yoo."



The DNA had been compared with a sample taken from an apparent hideout used by the Sewol's owner just 2.5 kilometers from the location of the body's discovery – the match was also supported by a sample from Yoo's elder brother and fingerprint analysis.



Several empty alcoholic beverage bottles were found near the body along with an empty bottle originally filled with shark liver oil, manufactured by one of Yoo's company affiliates.



"There is no sign of foul play," Woo said. "We believe that more detailed forensic analysis and a second autopsy by the National Forensic Service will shed light on other details such as the cause of death."



But at this stage more questions than answers remain about the elusive Yoo despite his many descriptions – a wealthy business leader, a religious sect co-founder, an award-winning inventor with a colorectal irrigation patent to his name and a photographic artist under the alias Ahae.



Indeed between 2011 and 2012, Ahae's exhibitions spanned from New York's Grand Central Terminal to the Louvre-associated Tuileries Garden in Paris.



By last year, the Sewol ferry had been remodeled in part to add a fifth-floor exhibition hall to house Ahae's work – in addition to cargo overloading, investigators found the safety of the ship to have been compromised as a result.



This was a man who - back under the name Yoo - had spent four years in prison after being convicted in 1992 of habitual fraud under the mask of religion.



But an even bigger question being asked Tuesday was whether the body found in that plum field in June was actually Yoo.



Yoo's sect maintains that it could not have been him, insisting to local news outlets that Yoo was not a drinker, for example.



But skepticism extended to the police, with one anonymous officer telling Yonhap News Agency that he was "110 percent certain that the decomposed body is not that of Yoo after decades of experience in the field."



Suspicions arose because a very much intact and alive Yoo had last been seen May 25 – calling to question the speed at which his body could have deteriorated.



For the Sewol ferry disaster victims' families, attention now turns to the 331 other people who have been booked by prosecutors for investigation.



As for the Yoo family, eldest son Dae-kyun remains a fugitive with a reward of nearly $100,000 on offer, while several others have already been arrested, including a daughter in Paris.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Seoul-t'ukpyolsi