Police said on Monday that according to DNA tests and fingerprints, the body, which was found on June 12 in the southern city of Suncheon belongs to the 73-year-old Yoo Byung-eun.
"DNA samples taken from the badly decomposed body exactly matched those of Yoo,” Woo Hyung-ho, the chief of the police agency in Sucheon, said, adding, "A print taken from the body’s right index finger also has been confirmed.”
Police officials also said that several empty bottles of alcoholic beverages were found at the time of the discovery. They added that the body was sent to the National Forensic Service in Seoul for more detailed forensic analysis and a second autopsy.
Yoo had been in police’s wanted list since April for embezzlement, negligence and tax evasion. Police had been offering 500 million won (489,000 dollars) for information leading to his arrest.
Sewol capsized off South Korea’s southern coast on April 16 while carrying 475 people, out of which 325 were high school students. The ferry’s captain, Lee Joon-seok, and three of his crew members, who survived the incident, face murder charges while other crew members have been indicted on charges of abandonment.
A report by the South Korean government’s Audit and Inspection Board, published on July 8, revealed that the sinking disaster was "man-made” and that the ship had received its license from the Korean Register of Shipping on the basis of fake documents.