SOUTH KOREAN special forces have freed a hijacked chemicals freighter in the Indian Ocean, boosting the stature of President Lee Myung-bak who has come under intense criticism at home for being weak on security.
The incident is another example of the growing international willingness to use force against the pirates. In the past it had been seen as counterproductive because it could ratchet up violence levels on both sides. Shipping companies have reportedly recently hired armed guards.
Some Somali leaders, including members of the country’s transitional parliament, believe that pirate fishing trawlers, notably from South Korea and Spain, were part of the cause of the Somali piracy problem.
Some Somali fishermen who armed themselves in an attempt to drive pirate fishing trawlers out of their waters, eventually turned into pirates themselves.
Last week’s hijacking of the Samho Jewelry triggered consternation in Korea because the Samho Dream, an oil tanker operated by the same company, was only freed in November after seven months. Samho handed over $9.5 million for that ship, in the biggest ransom paid to date to pirates.
A recent study from the US-based One Earth Future foundation showed the average ransom paid to Somali pirates rose nearly 60 per cent from 2009 to 2010, reaching $5.4 million. The average ransom paid in 2005 was $150,000.
The Korean raid in the early hours of yesterday, 1,300km off the coast of Somalia, rescued all 21 crew, eight of them Korean. Eight pirates were killed and five captured.
The captain of the Korean ship was shot in the stomach but is expected to survive.
After North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship in March and shelled an island in November, killing 50 people, many South Koreans criticised Mr Lee for neither retaliating nor protecting his citizens’ lives.
Mr Lee said in a TV address: “We will not tolerate any activity that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future.”
Such daring attacks against hijacked ships are very rare.
In April 2009, US forces killed three pirates to end the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama but intercepted them in a lifeboat which was heading away from the larger ship. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)