All search efforts to find the five missing victims of the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking have ended.

The Oceans and Fisheries Ministry's task force in charge of follow-up measures to the Sewol disaster has announced that the last search efforts for the missing victims ended Friday. The most recent search began in May.

Officials said that related sites will be cleaned up by the end of the month including outdoor storage areas filled with piles of mud and silt.

The ministry launched the final round of search operations in late June after the Sewol ferry was successfully erected to an upright position the previous month.

But the search failed to find any trace of the five missing victims.

The final search effort was initially planned to end on August 23rd, but was extended into October following requests from the victims’ families.

The ferry will stay at Mokpo New Port for some time as an investigation is scheduled by a special committee probing the April 2014 maritime disaster.