Another pirate attack on a South Korean vessel?

Hanjin Shipping is reporting that a container ship holding 6500 of them nifty metal storage units was attacked by Somali pirates as it journeyed from Europe to Singapore. They're not yet sure what's going on with the vessel or the crew:

The Hanjin Tianjin, which can carry 6,500 20-foot containers, was attacked 250 miles (402 kilometers) east of the Yemeni island of Socotra around 5:15 a.m. today Korea time, the Seoul-based company said in an e-mailed statement. There are 20 crewmembers on board the ship, it said.

The shipping line is still working to determine the fate of the vessel, which was heading to Singapore from Europe, it said. The company dropped as much as 3.9 percent to 29,350 won and traded at 29,850 won as of 10:18 a.m. in Seoul trading, while the benchmark Kospi index rose 0.8 percent.

An increase in Somali pirate attacks, spurred by a 36-fold jump in ransoms in five years, has threatened vessels carrying 20 percent of world trade and raised expenses for shippers. Costs linked to piracy may reach $13 billion to $15 billion by 2015 as global trade rebounds and pirates operate over wider areas, according to consultants Geopolicity Inc.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: South Korea (and Japan) can really boost its role as a full-fledged partner with the US (and its other allies) by upping even further the amount of resources it expends on its anti-piracy efforts. When a major chaebol like Hanjin can drop by nearly four percent over something like this, it's definitely in the national interest.

Somali pirates to release South Korean supertanker after ransom paid?

It's been so long since the crew of the Samho Dream were kidnapped by Somali pirates last April that the media and the public had all but forgotten about them. Back then, since the ROK Navy had caught up with them so quickly, many had hoped for a speedy rescue, but it was not to be.

Although military action or even escape (remember the North Koreans in June?) has happened in the past, there have been loads of cases where countries have just paid the ransom for their crew and their cargo (and the vessel itself). This was one of those cases.

From AP, via the Washington Post:

Somali pirates freed a hijacked South Korean supertanker and its crew after a ransom was paid, a South Korean news agency said Saturday.

The Samho Dream is now sailing toward the United States, Yonhap news agency reported, citing Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program.

All the sailors were safe and healthy, Mwangura said, according to Yonhap.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report. It said the release was imminent but the safety of the crew was not secured.

AP doesn't cite a ransom figure for the Samho Dream's five South Korean and nineteen Filipino crew members and their $160 million cargo.

Stop me if you've heard this one

Somali pirates have commandeered a South Korean ship again:

The South Korea Foreign Ministry told Yonhap News 43 crew members aboard the 241-ton trawler Keummi 305 were captured by the pirates on Oct. 9 about 10 miles off Lamu, Kenya. The crew included two South Koreans, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans, the South Korean news agency said.

A South Korean citizen living in Mombasa, Kenya, told Yonhap the pirates took the boat to Harardhere, north of Mogadishu.

Officials had not yet heard from the pirates with any demands.

"Given past instances, it would put the hostages in even more danger if the government tried to negotiate directly with the pirates," a ministry official said. "We're trying to find out more about the incident using all possible channels."

Got that? Negotiations with Taliban, okay. Negotiations with Somali pirates, not a good idea.

UPDATE:
Yonhap has more on this story.

Crew of hijacked North Korean ship escapes after four months

In a follow-up to this story from February, the crew of a North Korean cargo ship has retaken their ship and escaped their Somali captors.

From the Marine Log [HT to Wangkon]:

The crew of the North Korean flagged general cargo ship RIM have regained control of the ship. It had been hijacked on February 3 and was being held at Garacad, off Somalia's northern coastline.

Yesterday, at 1010 local time, the RIM reported that the crew had successfully retaken control of the ship and that it was headed south. One crew members was seriously injured.

The closest EU NAVFOR warship, the Spanish frigate VICTORIA, which was 100 miles away, was directed to the scene to give medical assistance and immediately launched its helicopter.

The helicopter found that, though the crew were still in control of the RIM, it was being pursued by pirates in another hijacked vessel, the MV VOC DAISY. When the helicopter approached the MV VOC DAISY, it changed her course - no warning shots were fired.

On reaching the scene, th VICTORIA then sent medical assistance to the vessel and took the injured crew member on board for treatment.

It is believed that some of the pirates were killed during the retaking of the ship.

Despite all the political problems in the wake of the Chonan sinking, it's nice to see that Western boats in the area are willing to offer medical assistant and other aid to the North Koreans (and the North Koreans are willing to take it). Of course, that's nothing new.

Breaking News: South Korean destroyer reaches hijacked oil tanker [UPDATED with new links]

[above: A file photo of the Chungmugong Yisunshin, which has caught up with the Samho Dream, which was hijacked by Somali pirates. Their own preparedness will likely be enhanced if they stand down from the "2010" formation on their deck.]

Well, that was fast. And now that they're there, it's time to play the waiting game.

From Reuters via the Washington Post:

A South Korean navy destroyer has caught up with a supertanker hijacked by pirates that is cruising toward the Somali coast with a cargo of crude oil worth as much as $170 million, an official said on Tuesday.

The South Korean-operated, Singapore-owned Samho Dream, which can carry more than 2 million barrels of crude, was seized on Sunday en route from Iraq to the United States, in the latest sign the sea gangs are targeting bigger quarry.

The destroyer, equipped with weapons that can hit targets as far as 32 km (20 miles) away and a Lynx combat helicopter on board, was shadowing the tanker as it headed for East Africa, a South Korean official said.

He declined to comment further on what was being planned by the naval unit, which was deployed last year to protect commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

...

The 319,000 deadweight tonnage Samho Dream, which was built in 2002, is carrying crude oil that could be worth as much as $170 million at current oil prices. It holds the equivalent of more than one day's worth of Iraqi exports.

Ah, the waiting game sucks. Let's play "Hungry Hungry Hippos."

UPDATE (April 7, 2010):
This story is now being carried by Reuters (via the New York Times), BBC, the Joongang Daily, and the Korea Times.

South Korean tanker taken over by Somali pirates

We get word today that on Easter Sunday, Somali pirates grabbed control of a South Korea-owned oil tanker from its twenty-four-man crew. Nothing has been heard since, and there is no word on the safety or status of the five South Koreans and nineteen Filipinos.

From the AP link above:

The [ROK Foreign Ministry] says the hijacking is thought to have occurred Sunday about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) southeast of the Gulf of Aden.

A ministry official says a South Korean navy ship operating in the Gulf of Aden received a call from the tanker saying three Somali pirates had boarded the vessel. The official says there was no subsequent contact.

The ministry says five crew members are South Korean and 19 are Filipino. It says the 300,000-ton-class tanker was sailing from Iraq to the U.S. state of Louisiana.

The story is also carried by Reuters, Voice of America, CNN, UPI, and the Joongang Daily.

The pirate attacks continue, despite stepped-up naval patrols by the US and other countries, including South Korea, and an increasingly armed presence onboard the targeted ships themselves (late last month, private guards aboard a ship killed a Somali pirate, a first).

In fact just last week, nine North Koreans were injured in a vicious attack:

Heavily armed Somali pirates shot and wounded nine seafarers during a bloody attempt to hijack a North Korean cargo ship off Kenya on Wednesday, a maritime watchdog said.

"There was a very violent attack against a North Korean vessel by Somali pirates who used automatic rifles and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," Pottengal Mukundan, director of the London based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) told AFP.

"Nine crew members have been seriously injured as a result of the attack," he added.

That these attacks continue is a no-brainer because of two factors: first, the utter lawlessness of Somalia and second, the pirates are well compensated. The recent successful hijacking of a North Korean chemical tanker with a crew of twenty-eight yielded a $3.5 million ransom for the pirates, and last year they "earned" a total of $60 million in ransoms.

Piracy pays.

South Korea has in the past tried to withhold payment from the pirates, with one crew being held by their Somali captors for 174 grueling days. But if you think South Koreans and ransom, the stand-out image is the 2007 Taliban kidnapping of a group of South Korean missionaries in Afghanistan, two of which were killed, and the supersized helpings of ridicule doled out to the Roh Moohyun government.

Seoul always denied a payoff, even though (if that's really what happened) South Korea was by no means the only country seeking payoffs or deals to save its citizens. In fact, an agreement by the Afghan government to release Taliban prisoners in exchange for the the release of Swiss-Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo may have primed the Taliban for the capture of the South Korean missionaries two months later.

North Korean ship hijacked off Yemeni coast

Several news organizations are reporting that pirates have hijacked a 4800-ton North Korean flagged ship called the MV Rim, owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya, and they're headed for Somalia. It's not clear what the ship was carrying or the nationalities of the crew.

To read more go to Bloomberg, the AP via WSJ, or CNN.

US Navy helps another North Korean ship avert a pirate attack

It must be true: I read it at Fox News.

Interestingly, the North Korean side apparently denied getting US help, so I'm in a conundrum about which fair-and-balanced news source to believe:

The U.S. Navy says it overtook a suspected Somali pirate skiff that tried to attack a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden.

A Navy statement issued Sunday says a security team aboard the merchant vessel Napht Al Yemen 1 repelled the Jan. 20 pirate attack without U.S. help.

The USS Porter stopped and boarded the pirate skiff later that day.

The commercial ship is Yemeni owned but sails under a North Korean flag.

The incident marked a rare example of the U.S. military aiding North Korea, a reclusive rogue nation.

I find it interesting, from a sociological-journalistic perspective, that these stories get the play they do in the English-language media. On the one hand, they are indeed newsworthy. But on the other hand, it seems to represent a deliberate attempt to re-humanize an enemy: While North Korean refugees are certainly seen as the human face of suffering, the leadership is depicted as wholly (and perhaps immutably) evil. Are the crews of North Korean ships part of the DPRK economic and political machinery, or are they North Korean citizens just trying to scrape out an existence?