South Korean Official Confirms Supertanker Release from Somali Pirates
South Korean foreign ministry official confirmed that Somali pirates freed South Korea’s supertanker Sunday.
The 300,000-ton Samho Dream supertanker and its 24 crews, 19 Filipinos and five South Koreans, were been hi-jacked while sailing towards Oman port. The released tanker will be escorted by a South Korean naval ship from Hobyo, Somalia, on its returning home.
In April, Samho Dream was sailing from Iraq going to the US, with two million barrels of oils amounted of $170 million, when it was captured by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
Pirates demanded to obtain $20 million in exchange of liberating their captives.
Even South Korean officials released a statement and confirmation about the coming discharge of the ship and its crews; they did not announce how much ransom was made and paid for the release, if there’s any.
However, there are some speculations that the owner of the supertanker paid the Somali pirates of around $9.5 million ransom. The news is based on the claims made by the pirate’s group.
The group said that they received the amount after a helicopter dropped the money for the discharge of the ship.
Official confirmed that the ship’s release is about to take place, however, they stressed uncertainty regarding the safety of the crews.
According to a Foreign Ministry official, if the safety of the released is secured, they plan to take the crews to a third country for check-ups before they will them home to ensure their health and condition.
Due to the piracy happening in Somalia, South Korea has merge with an international warship patrol off Somali, a place where piracy rose in the past years.
In October, a South Korean fishing boat with 43 crews on board was captured by Somali pirates off the coast of Kenya and held since then.
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Doing a recon on a red carpet laid out by the South Koreans. How do you tell them that the NK would destroy the entire Southern region and lay waste to it the first chance they get. But no..the South Koreans are h e l l bent on reunification. Naive just plain naive.