An international forensic team has confirmed the identities of three South Korean nationals killed in last week's plane crash in Laos, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The Lao airplane crashed into the Mekong River amid bad weather last week, killing all 49 passengers and crewmembers on board, including three South Korean businessmen.

"According to the forensic team on the site, three bodies recovered from the river were found to be South Koreans," the foreign ministry said in a brief statement.

A total of 42 bodies have been recovered from the river, but the South Korean victims had not been identified among the recovered bodies.

"The forensic team confirmed their identification yesterday via fingerprinting scanning and DNA testing," said a ministry official in charge of the consular services.

"In consultation with the bereaved families, we plan to take the victims (to Seoul)," he said, without elaborating further.

Many of the bodies recovered from the site have not been identified due to decay and damages from the impact of the crash, according to Seoul's Embassy officials in Laos.

Forensic teams from South Korea, Thailand and Australia have been working on taking samples and conducting autopsies at a makeshift morgue established near the crash site.

Lao authorities, meanwhile, are working on recovering the remaining bodies while trying to find flight data and cockpit voice recorders to determine the exact cause of the crash. (Yonhap News)