Bone from teacher aboard fated ferry

SEOUL, South Korea — DNA testing on a bone found in waters where a sunken ferry was recently raised has identified one of the nine missing passengers from the 2014 disaster that killed more than 300 people, South Korean officials said Wednesday.

Testing confirmed that the bone found May 5 was from the remains of teacher Koh Chang-seok, said the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. Most of the victims were students on a high school trip.

A total of 304 people died when the ferry Sewol sank on April 16, 2014, touching off an outpouring of national grief and soul-searching in South Korea about long-ignored public safety and regulatory failures. Public anger over what was widely seen as a botched rescue effort by the government contributed to the ouster of President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office in March.

Divers recovered 295 bodies from the ship’s wreckage and nearby seas before the government stopped underwater searches after seven months. Others missing passengers are four students, another teacher, a woman, a man and his 6-year-old son.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said Koh’s bone was not found in the wreckage but by divers who were searching fenced waters from which the ferry was raised. Survivors have said Koh and the other missing teacher, Yang Seung-jin, tried to help their students escape until the very end, moving around passenger cabins to distribute life vests to the teens even as the ship began to capsize.