Coast guard members search for passengers near a South Korean ferry that capsized on its way to Jeju island in Jindo on April 17, 2014. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Local police on Jindo island said the body of vice-principal Kang Min-Kyu, 52, was found near the gymnasium where relatives of the 268 people still missing from the ferry disaster have been staying.
Police said the cause of death was still under investigation, but multiple local media reports said he had been found hanging by his belt from a tree.
Yonhap news agency said police found a suicide note in Kang's wallet that cited his sense of guilt at having survived the disaster.
"Surviving alone is too painful... I take full responsibility. I pushed ahead with the school trip," Yonhap quoted the note as saying.
Of the 475 people on board the ferry when it capsized Wednesday morning, 352 were students from Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul.
They were taking the ferry for a school excursion to the popular southern resort island of Jeju.
The vice-principal was among 179 people who managed to escape the ferry in the few hours before it capsized and sank.
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A vice principal with a big heart. Wow. That's very sad yet very nice that there are people like this right now with such big hearts
The teacher could not stand the humiliation of being alive when hundreds of his school children died and so he killed himself............that is the quality that makes a nation. We would do well just to appreciate the depth in this sad story.