|
The number of Korean vacationers dead or missing from the tsunami that swept away any Christmas cheer in the Asian region Sunday remained unchanged as of 5:00 p.m. Wednesday with four fatalities and 11 officially missing, while the total death toll surpassed 60,000.
The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that a Reuters report, claiming 36 Korean were killed in the wake of Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunamis in South Asia, didn't appear to be well founded, but it was currently in the process of confirmation.
 |
|
A Satellite image of Kalutara, on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, taken Tuesday shortly after the area was hit by tsunamis inspired by the region's largest earthquake in 40 years.
|
 |
|
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of 610 Koreans have yet to be ascertained, 20 more than on Tuesday. The ministry said that between 350 and 400 of the Koreans were in Thailand, 100 in India, 10 in Indonesia and 100 scattered among other land masses on or bordering the Indian Ocean.
The earthquake-inspired tsunamis (a Japanese word meaning harbor wave) that stretched across South and Southeast Asia to the rim of East Africa is known to have killed more than 60,000 people, 10,000 more than was estimated yesterday, and left over a million homeless in Sri Lanka alone.
With the Korean Embassy in Thailand still unable to confirm additional survivors or fatalities on Wednesday -- four days after the tsunami struck -- there is mounting concern about delays and the strain this will put on families and friends.
As of Dec. 29, the Associated Press calculated the death toll by country at 32,000 for Indonesia, 21,700 for Sri Lanka, 4,500 for India and 1,500 for Thailand. With national relief authorities continuing to revise up their death tolls, the final figure remains impossible to gauge.
International relief agencies and governments have begun assisting nations affected by the disaster, but rebuilding efforts are encountering problems due to the scale and magnitude of the damage.
With large numbers of bodies decomposing in open areas and waterways, there are also concerns of a second disaster stemming from epidemics such as cholera, diarrhea and even dehydration.
"I think there is going to be thousands, thousands, if not tens of thousands, more than the figure that is generally being used now," said UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, appearing on CNN on Wednesday. In addition to food aid, sanitation assistance was also needed to contain the fallout of nascent epidemics, he said.
In the preceding article, a somewhat misleading expression was used in one of the captions. Showing two passports found by rescue workers amidst the bodies of those killed in Saturday's tsunami, we said the passport holders may have been killed, even though they are currently alive. We apologize to everyone, including the family members of the individuals in question, for causing undue distress, and we shall correct the caption. Moreover, we inform you that the brother and sister in the passport photos, who are Canadian nationals, are the son and daughter of the Polish ambassador to Korea.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
