**South Korea’s navy is continuing its search for 46 sailors missing after Friday’s explosion sank their ship, but hopes are fading of finding survivors.**Military divers have arrived at the scene in near-freezing waters, but rough seas are holding up their work.
The naval patrol vessel sank near the disputed maritime border with North Korea but officials say there is no indication the North was involved.
Fifty-eight sailors were rescued from one of the South’s worst sea disasters.
The 1,200-tonne Cheonan sank off the west coast of the divided peninsula, in an area which has seen deadly exchanges of fire between the navies of the North and South in the past.
But there were no North Korean vessels in the area, and Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Park Sung-Woo said there was no sign of any “abnormal movement” in the North.
‘Two hours-limit’
The divers were due to investigate the cause of the explosion and retrieve bodies, a South Korean military spokesman said.
“Marines on deck were desperately shouting: ‘Save me!’”
Kim Jin-ho
Witness
In pictures: Search for survivors
Navy and coast guard vessels, as well as air force planes, were scouring the area near South Korea’s Baeknyeong Island.
The AP news agency quotes an unnamed coast guard official as saying that humans could only survive in the Yellow Sea at this time of year for about two hours. He said the water would be between 3 and 5C.
The Cheonan began sinking at about 2130 local time (1230 GMT) on Friday. Only a small part of its overturned hull remains visible.
Military officials told South Korea’s Yonhap news agency that an explosion tore a hole in the rear hull, shutting off the engine and quickly taking the ship down.
A number of the crew jumped into the water, Yonhap said.
“Yells and screams filled the air,” witness Kim Jin-ho, a seaman who was on a local passenger ship bound for Baeknyeong, told cable news channel YTN.
“Marines on deck were desperately shouting: 'Save me!”’
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency meeting of security officials and said all possible causes for the sinking would be investigated.
He ordered the military to focus on rescuing the sailors.
There were initial reports that another South Korean ship had fired shots toward an unidentified vessel, but officials later speculated the target had been a flock of birds.
The incident comes at a time of tension between the two Koreas. International talks aimed at ending the communist North’s nuclear ambitions have been stalled for months.
North and South Korea are still in a official state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended only in a truce.
Since then, they have fought three bloody skirmishes in the Yellow Sea.
In January, North Korea fired about 30 artillery shells not far from Baeknyeong. South Korea fired 100 warning shots in response, but no injuries were reported.
South Korea recognises the Northern Limit Line, drawn unilaterally by the US-led United Nations Command to demarcate the sea border at the end of the Korean War. The line has never been accepted by North Korea.