SEOUL – Bad weather and high tides have again delayed the resumption of operations to raise South Korea’s sunken Sewol ferry, the maritime ministry said Monday.

The vessel was carrying 476 people when it went down off the southwestern island of Jindo in April 2014, leaving 304 people dead – mostly school children – in one of the country’s worst maritime disasters.

After already being pushed back once due to bad weather, the salvage operation had been scheduled to resume Tuesday but has now been put off for another two weeks.

“The operations for raising the bow and installing lifting beams have been inevitably delayed to July 11 due to bad weather, including high tide and winds,” the maritime ministry said in a statement.

“Because the lifting of the bow section is a very challenging operation… it can only be conducted when the tide is below one metre (three feet),” it added.

5 killed after rescue helicopter searching for S Korea ferry victims crashes

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, Stomp, Reuters

The tide is forecast to be around two to four metres in the next few days, according to the ministry.

It is thought that nine bodies still unaccounted for may still be trapped inside the sunken ship, and raising the ferry intact was a key demand of the victims’ families.

The 6,825-tonne ferry lies more than 40 metres (130 feet) below the surface and the process of actually lifting it off the seabed began earlier this month – only to be suspended a day later due to adverse weather conditions.

The salvage effort is expected to cost around $72 million and is being led by a Chinese consortium.

The initial schedule envisaged bringing the ferry to the surface by late July, but the ministry later revised its likely timeline to August – depending on conditions during the July monsoon season.

Investigations into the Sewol disaster concluded it was largely a man-made tragedy – the cumulative result of an illegal redesign, an overloaded cargo bay, inexperienced crew and a questionable relationship between the ship operators and state regulators.

Captain Lee Jun-Seok was sentenced to life in prison for “murder through wilful negligence” and sentences ranging from two to 12 years were handed down to 14 other crew members.

Hundreds of protestors clash with police over Sewol ferry disaster

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AFP

BEIJING – China moved closer on Monday to adopting a controversial cybersecurity law, after parliament held a second reading of the draft rules, which carry significant consequences for domestic and foreign business and threaten greater censorship.

China enforces widespread controls over the internet that it has sought to codify in law, and Chinese laws often go through multiple readings and drafts before they are adopted.

The draft, presented before the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, requires network operators to comply with social morals and accept the supervision of the government and public, official news agency Xinhua said.

It also reiterated that Chinese citizens’ personal data, as well as “important business data” must be stored domestically, adding that those wishing to provide that information overseas faced a government security evaluation.

Parliament has not yet published the full second draft of the cybersecurity law and it is not clear when it may be passed.

Cybersecurity has been a particularly irksome area in China’s relations with economic partners such as the United States and the European Union, which see many recently proposed rules as unfair to foreign firms.

Chinese officials say internet restrictions, including the blocking of popular foreign sites like Google and Facebook, are needed to ensure security against growing threats, such as terrorism.

The first draft of the cybersecurity law, published almost a year ago, stiffened user privacy protection from hackers and data resellers but also boosted the government’s powers to access and block dissemination of private information records that Chinese law deems illegal.

China’s broadly-defined regulations have been a source of concern, especially for foreign governments, multinational companies and rights activists, which worry that the government can interpret the law as it sees fit.

Chinese companies have also been on the receiving end of government efforts to tighten control of the internet.

Regulators last month set limits on the number of lucrative healthcare advertisements carried by Baidu Inc after a student died following an experimental cancer treatment he uncovered by using China’s biggest internet search engine.

TAIPEI – Taiwan plans to test-fire its newest anti-missile system for the first time in the United States next month as relations with rival China deteriorate, a defence source and media reports said Monday.

Relations between China and Taiwan have cooled rapidly under the island’s new Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen, who took office in May, ending an eight-year rapprochement.

The test of the US-made Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) system will be launched at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in early July, a defence ministry source told AFP, in a move likely to irk Beijing even though it was arranged before Tsai took the helm.

According to the source, the test will be conducted in the US to avoid China collecting information about it, and due to space restrictions in Taiwan.

The American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy, would not comment on the test, which was also reported in Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper.

Despite having no official diplomatic ties with Taipei after recognising Beijing in 1979, the US is still Taiwan’s greatest ally and main arms supplier.

The missile system was purchased in 2008, well before Tsai’s leadership, and the test was approved by the US last year, according to the Liberty Times.

Taiwan bought three earlier model PAC-2 systems in the 1990s and also tested them in the US. They were deployed in the densely populated greater Taipei area.

It then bought the new PAC-3 – a system designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles near the end of their trajectory – as part of a $6.5 billion arms sale by the US in 2008, which infuriated Beijing at the time.

The system is already partly operational and will shield Taipei, as well as central Taichung and southern Kaohsiung from any Chinese missile attacks, according to the defence ministry.

The Taiwanese missile unit involved in the July drill will fire two missiles to intercept a missile launched by the US military, which simulates an incoming Chinese ballistic missile, the Liberty Times reported.

Japan has also tested the PAC-3 on US soil.

In the latest setback for cross-strait ties, China said Sunday that communications with Taiwan had been suspended after the island’s new government failed to acknowledge the concept that there is only “one China”.

China still insists self-ruling Taiwan is part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, even though the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.

According to Taiwan’s defence ministry there are 1,500 Chinese missiles aimed at the island.

China launched ballistic missiles into waters off Taiwan in 1995 and 1996 in an attempt to deter voters in the island’s first democratic presidential elections.