The fishing boat catches fire in waters off Jeju island of the RoK (Photo: Yonhap)

The RoK Coast Guard said that a fire broke out on the 29-tonne ship at around 3:18 am (local time) in waters about 74 km southeast of Udo Island near Jeju.

Two Koreans aboard have been rescued so far, while another one is unaccounted for, with search operations still under way.

Adverse weather conditions have hampered efforts to put out the fire and find the crew, Yonhap said, quoting a Coast Guard officer.

Body of missing Vietnamese sailor found in sunken Panamanian ship

Cargo ship Jia De (Photo: vesseltracker.com)

Nguyen Van Tri, one of the two Vietnamese sailors working onboard a Panama-flagged cargo ship that sank on October 12, 2019 in Tokyo Bay of Japan, was found dead inside the vessel.

The victim’s wife, Huong Thao, told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) that the ship owner informed the company that sent her husband to work on the ship Jia De about the finding on February 14.

However, the Japanese side just confirmed the information after conducting ADN tests more than one week later, the wife said, adding that she is completing necessary procedures to bring her husband’s ashes home, scheduled for March 5.

Tri’s Vietnamese crewmate, Pham Van Duc, had been rescued by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG).

The sailors were among the 12-member crew of the 1,925-tonne ship that sunk while anchoring in the bay as typhoon Hagibis approached. The other sailors included three from Myanmar and seven from China.

Apart from Duc, two Myanmar and one Chinese people were rescued by the JCG while the remaining eight sailors were confirmed dead./. VNA

Five Vietnamese sailors missing as vessel sinks off Japan

Five Vietnamese sailors were reported missing after a cargo vessel sank off the coast of Aomori prefecture in Japan on February 29, according to a Vietnamese official.