Military divers struggled to open holes in each half of the bisected hull of the sunken Chenonan in desperate efforts to find the sailors believed to be trapped inside the wreckage.
Late Monday, divers succeeded in putting air into the stern of the ship, where most of the missing crew are believed to have been trapped since the 1,200-ton ship sank near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border with North Korea, in the West Sea (Yellow Sea) after a mysterious explosion, the ministry said.
The ministry released an 80-second video image taken right after the incident occurred in waters 1.8 kilometers south of Baengnyeong Island.
The image was recorded by a thermal observation device (TOD) set up on Baengnyeong, the country's northernmost island, ministry officials said.
It shows some crewmen waiting for rescue on the capsized bow, while two patrol boats approach the scene to help.