On Saturday, 16 pieces of human bone were found in mud collected from Sewol’s fourth deck, marking the first major discoveries since operators began examining the ship on April 18.

Some of the fragments were assumed to be from Cho Eun-hwa, a female Danwon High School student, based on a comparison of a gold tooth found from remains and Cho’s past dental records. The bereaved family identified the remains and agreed they were from Cho.

But the ministry has yet to confirm the notion, saying the inspection has just entered its initial stage.

“Workers continued to find multiple pieces of human bones as they searched manually through bags of mud retrieved from the fourth deck, but it is hard to determine that the remains are from the nine missing passengers,” said a ministry official.

“We can only identify the bones after DNA results come out.”

The bones will be transferred to the National Forensic Service for DNA tests. The results will come out in a month, the ministry said.

According to workers, the remains of another female student might be near where those remains were discovered. They have completed 85 percent of a search of the ship’s interior on the fourth deck close to the stern of the ship.

Since the raised wreck’s interior is filled with mud and obstacles, authorities said workers will drill more holes from the fifth deck to gain access to more bedrooms and the women’s bathroom on the fourth deck.

If the NFS’ detailed investigation confirms the identity of the remains, the search team will still need to find the remains of eight more victims, including three Danwon High School students.

As of Sunday, 2,630 bags of mud had been removed during a search of the ship’s interior so far. From them, workers have sifted through to find 1,585 personal belongings, including school bags, pens, wallets and cellphones.

The Sewol ferry sank on April 16, 2014 off Korea’s southwestern coast while on its way to the Jeju Island. A total of 304 people, most of them high school students on an excursion, died in the tragedy.

The ship, which had remained at the bottom of the sea since then, was brought to land last month following a difficult salvage operation. But the ministry and search operators have been criticized for making little progress in finding and identifying the nine bodies still unaccounted for.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)