N. Korean cargo ship repels pirates off Somali coast: official

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean cargo ship single-handedly fought off
a band of pirates off the Somali coast earlier this month when its crew members
hurled primitive fire bombs and signal rockets at them before speeding away, an
official said Tuesday.
The Sept. 5 incident took place off the port of Mogadishu when the 3,400-ton
cargo ship was attacked by 10 pirates charging at them in two speedboats, an
International Maritime Bureau (IMB) official said.
"It was North Korean. She was in the anchorage area in Mogadishu in Somalia," the
official said by phone from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, where the IMB
is based.
The official declined to be identified because he was not the spokesperson, whom
he said was not immediately available.
According to the official, the North Korean crew threw molotov cocktails --
bottles filled with incendiary liquid set off with a piece of cloth -- and signal
rockets at the pirate boats.
The ship, whose name the official declined to reveal, was undergoing repair when
the attack took place at around 4 p.m.
One North Korean crew member was injured, while the ship incurred damages from
the attack by the heavily armed pirates. But the North Koreans eventually managed
to speed away from the pirates, the official said.
A South Korean intelligence official said he was not immediately aware of the
incident, saying his team would look into it.
South Korea has a naval unit operating in the Gulf of Aden to protect commercial
vessels from pirates under a U.S.-led multinational drive.
On May 4, the Cheonghae unit received a distress call from a North Korean ship
and sent a helicopter to fight off pirates trying to hijack the 6,400-ton ship.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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