Staff Reporter
A South Korean warship, which was chasing an oil tanker hijacked by Somali pirates, has been out of Somali waters since the ship's owner began negotiations with its captors, a foreign ministry official said Saturday.
The captain of the Samho Dream said the pirates are "heavily armed" and warned that they should not be provoked since the tanker is carrying a large amount of crude oil, according to the official.
Naval forces aboard the 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyer had considered conducting rescue operations, but pirates warned that the safety of the kidnapped sailors would be in jeopardy if the destroyer sailed any closer, he added on condition of anonymity.
The owner of the South Korean-operated, Marshall Island-flagged, Samho Dream has been in contact with pirates via a British negotiator, he said.
The 300,000-ton supertanker with five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos on board was seized on April 4 in the Indian Ocean, while travelling from Iraq to the United States.
"The government concluded that the destroyer's task has been completed," the official said. "It will return to its area of operations."
The anti-piracy Cheonghae unit operates in the Gulf of Aden to escort South Korean cargo vessels. If required, the ship with 300 forces on board is authorized to monitor, inspect, stop and seize pirates' vessels as part of the Combined Task Force 151, under the command of the Combined Forces Maritime Component Command based in Bahrain.
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