Search-and-rescue operations have been halted due to bad weather conditions... off the southwestern coast of Korea... where the Sewol-ho ferry sank... almost two weeks ago.
The number of confirmed deaths currently stands at one hundred-eighty-eight, while one hundred-fourteen others, mostly teenage high school students, remain missing, presumed dead.
Rescue teams are trying to come up with different ideas... on how to get deeper inside the vessel... and recover every last victim.
Let's go straight to our Kim Ji-yeon ... who joins us from our news center.
Ji-yeon, what's the latest?
Hello, Mark. The authorities are now considering using more tools to speed up the search operations.
The government says divers will use compact explosives to take out debris that is blocking passageways within the ferry... but only when the parents of the missing students give their consent.
You can imagine what the parents are going through... they want to see their loved ones as fast as they can... but they also don't want the bodies to be damaged.
The explosives will speed up operations, but there is the concern that it may damage bodies trapped inside.
Authorities are saying they are starting to use metal cutters to open doors within the vessel.
The move looks to address criticism that the search operation is taking too long... one of the major complaints made by the families of the missing passengers.
Up to now, the divers have completed their search of just over half of the cabins.
It has recovered bodies from around 35 of the cabins as of Sunday, out of the 64 cabins that are under its search plan.
Ji-yeon, I understand the prosecution's special investigative team on the ferry sinking raided the Mokpo Coast Guard Station, tell us more about that.
You're right, Mark. Prosecutors and police investigating the case suspect officers there
neglected their duty to effectively deal with the situation in the early stages of the rescue.
The Mokpo Coast Guard has been accused of wasting precious minutes by asking a student who made the first emergency call from the ferry... whether he knew the coordinates of where the vessel was.
This comes as prosecutors raided maritime traffic control centers on Jeju and Jindo Island over the weekend.
They are suspected of neglecting their duties in the early stages of the ferry sinking and giving up their responsibility for an area that they should have been monitoring.
I'm Kim Ji-yeon and I'll come back with more updates later today.
