S. Korea rescues Egyptian ship from Somali hijackers

SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean naval unit has rescued a foreign vessel from being hijacked for the fourth time since it began operating in pirate-plagued Somali waters last month, officials said Thursday.

The Cheonghae unit, which is escorting South Korean vessels in the Gulf of Aden,
drove away suspected pirates Wednesday night (Korean time) after receiving a
distress call from an Egyptian-registered commercial vessel and dispatching a
helicopter, the officials said.
The 300-member unit operates aboard a 2,100-ton destroyer, Munmu the Great. It
has aided North Korean, Danish and Panamanian ships since its deployment early
last month as part of a U.S.-led anti-piracy campaign.
The destroyer was sailing 137 kilometers south of the Yemeni port city of
Mukallah when the Egyptian boat, Amira, reported it was being chased by suspected
pirates while traveling westward, the Joint Chief of Staff officials said.
Munmu the Great dispatched a Lynx helicopter at 10:20 p.m. The chopper arrived in
25 minutes at the scene where a boat believed to carry pirates was only 1.8
kilometers behind Amira, the officials said.
The gunmen on the chopper threatened to fire as part of a standard procedure,
scaring away the suspected hijackers, they said.
Somalia has not had a functional government since its dictator was overthrown by
warlords in 1991. Poverty has driven a large number of locals to piracy, while
black market sales of weapons run rampant.
Approximately 500 South Korean ships ply the route each year, according to the
South Korean defense ministry, which estimates 150 are vulnerable to pirate
attacks because of their low speed.
The Munmu the Great destroyer was deployed mainly to protect South Korean vessels
in the route where over 110 pirate-related incidents took place last year, a
five-fold jump from two years earlier.