A Korean fishing vessel carrying 42 crew members, including eight Koreans, sank off Antarctica yesterday, leaving five crew dead and 17 others missing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday. The cause of the sinking was unknown. Only one Korean was rescued. Two of the confirmed dead were Korean and the Korean captain is among the missing, the ministry said. The ship also had eight Chinese crew, 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, three Filipinos and one Russian. Rescue mission operators said the chances the missing sailors will survive are slim because of the cold water temperature. The Foreign Ministry said the 614-ton Busan-based ship, No. 1 Inseong, was 2,593 kilometers (1,400 miles) south of New Zealand when it went down around 4:30 a.m. Five fishing vessels that were operating nearby - three Korean and two from New Zealand - were mobilized for rescue operations coordinated by Maritime New Zealand. Maritime New Zealand said on its Web site that it considered mobilizing an Orion aircraft and a Hercules aircraft, but gave up on it.
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