SKorean navy pursuing hijacked tanker off Somalia

Source: AP

By SANGWON YOON
Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A South Korean navy destroyer is pursuing a South Korean-owned oil supertanker believed to have been hijacked by pirates off Somalia's coast, officials said.

The warship had been in the Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy operations and was ordered to move toward the tanker's expected location in Somali waters, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said late Sunday.

The navy received a call from the Samho Dream supertanker saying three pirates had boarded early Sunday, and then there was no more contact, a ministry official said. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with ministry policy.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100405/ap_on_re_as/piracy

:popcorn:

Cool!

Though they will quickly be replaced, the money is too good, especially compared to the amount of work it takes.

I don't think that they are taking the level of mercy and restraint being shown by more developed nations seriously yet, but they will within the next year as warships from every nation with a shipping interest swarm the area and put a final end to this plague. There is only so long nations like Norway can catch a dozen pirates while they stop a hijacking and then immediately release them.

Things would be so much better for them if they would just take up fishing and stop their violent power struggles. The same developed nations that thus far have gone to great lengths to avoid reacting with swiftness and violence of action would fall over themselves to try to send meaningful aid their way if it was safe to do so.

Unlike many western European nations the Korean government is not above ordering the sinking of the ship just to get the point across that the Korean Government won't let this become an on-running thing

Pirates are enemies of humanity, early on in U.S. history we paid some "protection money" to the Barbary pirates out of Tripoli, they wanted an increase, we refused, and in turn they pushed the U.S. Navy and Marines to set them straight on two separate occasions, one of which dragged on for four years.

Modern governments seem to have forgotten how piracy works and that it will never stop until the actors are convinced that given enough time it is a suicidal endeavor.

for them to take up that line of work. I believe that the area was heavily polluted by European firms that took advantage of the lack of government (and regulations) in the area to just dump toxic chemicals & waste. But, I may be misinformed.

but there really are no good numbers or reports on the extent of the problem. No one really has any idea if it is a few instances or how widespread it was.

But, as a general rule, I don't buy the pirates as environmental activists BS.

just that fishing may not be an option for them.

but some here say they are.

...from a sudden influx of money, the source of which seems pretty well known on the street.

tburnsten

I agree oon this, it must be an end to the piracy, even tho somalians itself have a hardship making ends met in their life.. But to attack trade, to get money who for the most are not going at all to the peopole who would need it anyway.. It is the extremist, the killers, the "fundis" who got the most of the money.. The small people it self would not be given to mutch of it

It looks like it would be the same as in the 1700s, where most "crown states" in the Sout-East and Caribian got tired of the piracy who treated the verry foundation of trade in the area.. When they started to work togheter, and to fight the piracy, the pirates lost interst in the trade of piracy by the 1800s...

And I guess some nations, would go tired about catch and release the pirates all the time - and just sink the MFs and let them swim to Somalia on their own... And they might also got the message around to the pirates too...

Diclotican

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzBPGfCq21s

That would greatly cut down on the # of pirate attacks.