S. Korea identifies body of suspected ferry owner

South Korean police said Tuesday that they have found the body of a fugitive billionaire businessman sought over April's ferry disaster that left more than 300 people dead or missing.

Police officer Wu Hyung-ho told a televised news conference that the body was found in an agricultural field in the southern city of Suncheon on June 12. He said results of DNA and fingerprint tests showed they matched those of Yoo Byung-eun.

Wu said the body was already decayed beyond recognition when it was found and more thorough investigation is needed to find out how and when he died.

The body was wearing a pair of expensive shoes and a costly Italian-made jacket. Also found near him were three empty Korean local liquor bottles, a bag and a magnifying glass, according to police.

Authorities believe Yoo was the owner the ferry and that his alleged corruption may have contributed to its sinking. The captain and 15 crew membersre currently on trial on charges ranging from negligence to homicide.

The sinking, one of South Korea's deadliest disasters in decades, has caused an outpouring of national grief, and the country is undergoing national soul-searching about public safety. About 100 days after the disaster, 294 dead bodies have been retrieved but 10 people are still missing.

There is widespread anger and frustration with the government over what many see as an incompetent search and rescue effort. Since the sinking, President Park Geun-hye has pushed to restructure government agencies and reshuffle top officials in an effort to restore public confidence.

Police and prosecutors had been seeking Yoo for weeks and had offered a $500,000 reward for tips about him. 

Yoo, head of the now-defunct predecessor of the ferry's current operator, Chonghaejin, allegedly still controlled the company through a complex web of holding companies in which his children and close associates are large shareholders. The government offered a $100,000 bounty for Yoo's eldest son, and one of his daughters was arrested in France in May.

The predecessor company went bankrupt in the late 1990s but Yoo's family continued to operate ferry businesses under the names of other companies, including one that eventually became Chonghaejin.

 Al Jazeera and the Associated Press