South Korea's coast guard has said that the bodies of two crew members of a fishing boat that sank in the Yellow Sea with nine sailors aboard were recovered on Saturday.

The South Korean news agency has said that the vessel went down late Friday while searching for clues to last week's explosion that sank the South Korean navy ship Cheonan, the Yonhap News agency reported. The fate of the other seven seamen who had been aboard the Kumyang 98 was unknown.

According the reports of Yonhap, authorities Saturday detained a Cambodian-registered freighter, the Taiyo-1, to question its crew and check for signs of a collision.

A South Korean officer further informed Yonhap, "The captain did not admit to a collision, but conceded he felt some kind of impact."

The South Korean coast guard was employing helicopters and patrol boats to search for the missing Kumyang 98 crew members. Three vessels from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also were aiding the search. (With Inputs from Agencies)