[Anchor]

One of the six crew members who went missing after a tugboat capsized off the coast of Busan last week has been found dead. The body was discovered on a beach in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, over 100 kilometers away from the accident site. The Coast Guard is expanding the search area to find the remaining five missing persons.

[Reporter]

The capsizing accident involving the tugboat TNS Catcher occurred off the coast of Busan on the 2nd.

At around 8:50 a.m. yesterday (the 9th), exactly one week after the accident, the body of a 50-something South Korean crew member, identified as A, was found.

The body of crew member A was recovered from a beach near Dogu Beach in Nam-gu, Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, more than 100 kilometers away from the accident site.

A sanitation worker discovered the body on the beach and reported it. To confirm the identity, the Coast Guard conducted digital forensics on a mobile phone found with the body and fingerprint analysis, confirming that the deceased was A, the second engineer of the TNS Catcher.

Previously, the TNS Catcher capsized while towing a disabled container ship about 9 kilometers east of Oryukdo Island in Busan on the 2nd.

At the time of the accident, there were eight people on board the TNS Catcher, including six South Koreans and two Indonesians.

Among them, one Indonesian crew member was rescued, while one South Korean was found unconscious and later died, leaving the remaining six missing as search operations continued.

The search for the remaining missing crew members has entered its 9th day, but the Coast Guard is facing difficulties due to poor weather conditions, including high waves and strong winds.

The Coast Guard stated, "To find the remaining five individuals, we have expanded the search area up to the Donghae Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, which oversees Gangwon and North Gyeongsang provinces."

Video by So Ji-hye