Around 7 a.m. on Nov. 19, a 29-ton fishing boat with 12 crewmen aboard -- six South Koreans and six Vietnamese -- caught fire and keeled over in waters 76 kilometers west of Jeju Island.

The boat departed from Tongyeong Port in South Gyeongsang Province on Nov. 8 to catch hairtail and was scheduled to return on Nov. 18.

One South Korean man, 60, was found dead following the accident, and the Coast Guard has been searching for the remaining 11 since then.

One of the bodies found Sunday was spotted some 44 meters from the sunken fuselage and was lifted at around 5:15 p.m. that day.

Based on fingerprint analysis, police presumed the body belongs to one of the Vietnamese crewmen. Police have requested that Jeju National University Hospital carry out an autopsy on the body.

The other body was not raised immediately due to fast flow and poor underwater visibility, and the body was retrieved at around 1:45 p.m. on Monday. The body will be transferred using a Coast Guard patrol ship and was expected to arrive at Jeju Port around 6 p.m. The body will be moved to S-Jungang Hospital for identification.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said it had spotted what appears to be the front part of the 26-meter-long vessel during Sunday’s underwater search. The debris -- around 18 meters in length -- was found 82 meters underwater, about 1.4 kilometers from the disaster site.

Following the fire, the boat was split into two pieces as it capsized. Authorities salvaged the rear portion on Nov. 22, and upon examining the wreckage, found no source of fire there. The cause of the fire and details as to how the accident happened remain unidentified.

The Coast Guard planned to discontinue the underwater search using the remotely operated vehicle at around 5:30 p.m. and resume the next morning if the weather conditions allow.

By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)