SEOUL/SUNCHEON, July 22 (Yonhap) -- Police said Tuesday that they have found the body of a fugitive tycoon wanted over April's ferry sinking that left more than 300 people dead or missing.
The body, discovered on June 12 in a plum field in the southern city of Suncheon, about 415 kilometers south of Seoul, belongs to Yoo Byung-eun, the 73-year-old billionaire who owns Chonghaejin Marine Co. which operates ferry Sewol, they said.
"DNA samples taken from the badly decomposed body exactly matched those of Yoo," Woo Hyung-ho, chief of the Suncheon Police Station, told a televised press briefing.
"A print taken from the body's right index finger also has been confirmed," Woo added.
The body's DNA matched that of a DNA sample that authorities obtained from a vacation home where Yoo had been holed up, 2.5 kilometers from where the body was found. A comparison also showed the body's DNA and that of Yoo's arrested older brother, Yoo Byung-ill, 75, sharing the same biological parents, therefore related, officials said.
"There was no sign of foul play," Woo said, adding that the exact timing and cause of death were not immediately known.
At the time of discovery, the body was lying face up, wearing a designer label winter jumper and a hat, police said.
Several empty bottles of alcoholic beverage and an empty bottle of shark liver oil product made by one of affiliates owned by the reclusive owner were found at the scene, officials 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," Woo said.
The body was transferred from Suncheon to the National Forensic Service in Seoul, police said.
A massive manhunt had been under way for Yoo since the ferry Sewol sank on April 16, which claimed 294 lives, mostly high school students on a school trip, and left 10 people still missing.
Prosecutors suspect that corruption by Yoo and his family resulted in lax safety practices, such as cargo overloading, and created conditions that ultimately led to one of the country's worst peacetime disasters.
Authorities had been offering bounties of 500 million won (US$489,000) and 100 million won, respectively, as rewards for information leading to the capture of Yoo and his eldest son, Dae-kyun.
The Suncheon Police Station said that the announcement had been delayed as forensic investigation on DNA takes 40 days, but at the same time acknowledged that the investigation was not perfect.
Some officers within the investigative agency, however, raised the possibility that the body could not be that of Yoo, citing various forensic and circumstantial evidence.
"I am 110 percent certain that the decomposed body is not that of Yoo, after decades of experience in the field," said a police officer, asking not to be named.
It is impossible for the body, which was too decomposed to provide any hint on the cause of death, to be Yoo's, who was last seen on May 25 in the Suncheon area, the officer added.
Many of his other family members, including his wife and elder brother, have been arrested following the ferry disaster on embezzlement charges. A daughter is fighting an extradition bid from Paris as well.
As part of efforts to determine the whereabouts of Yoo, police and prosecution officials in June raided a religious compound belonging to the Evangelical Baptist Church, in which the Yoo family remains influential members.
The church was established by Yoo's father-in-law, Kwon Sin-chan, in 1961. It is widely considered a cult with its some 20,000 followers, including most of the senior officials of Chonghaejin and its affiliates.
The church, under a different name, was also allegedly involved in a 1987 high-profile mass suicide-murder case. More than 30 people from the group were found dead, bound and gagged in a factory outside of Seoul. Investigators, however, found no evidence tying the event to Yoo.
In 1992, Yoo was sentenced to four years in prison on fraud charges. He was convicted of using church followers' money by using his status within the church.
The Evangelical Baptist Church, meanwhile, denied the police discovery, saying that the body could not have been that of Yoo.
"At the moment, we do not believe a report that the body of Yoo Byung-eun has been found," Lee Tae-jong, spokesman of the group, said in a phone interview with Yonhap News Agency.
The police announcement comes a day after investigators at the top prosecution office announced interim results of their investigation into one of the country's worst peace disasters.
Investigators at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) said they will proceed with the probe, despite revelations about Yoo's death, and continue with the search for other fugitive family members.
According to the SPO's result, a total of 331 people, including family members of Yoo, Sewol crewmen and Coast Guard officials, have been booked for investigation for allegedly playing roles related to the tragedy.
