An employee of a civilian enterprise who took part in the salvage of the warship at that time testified to this fact in the course of a trial of Sin Sang Chol, who was a member of the joint investigation team, held at the Seoul Central District Court on Jan. 9.

According to him, those concerned of the enterprise arrived at the scene of the incident on April 3, 2010. On Apr. 12 they salvaged the stern of the sunken warship by a crane.

At that time, they could transfer it directly to other cargo ship, but at the instruction of the military authorities, it was put into seawater, covered with net, before being taken towards a shore.

Claiming that the salvage operation had to be suspended due to bad weather, the military authorities told members of the salvage team to leave the place except the crane operator.

Then they had banned anyone's access to the stern for two days.

It was only on Apr. 15 that they let the workers transfer the stern to the cargo ship and set up a curtain around it. They were known to have done something by themselves all night.

Disclosing this fact, the employee of the enterprise said that it was easy to transfer the stern of such weight to the cargo ship without taking it to the shallow water.

In this regard, lawyers held that the military authorities should clarify why they deliberately delayed the salvage of the warship.