Somali pirates free 4 Koreans
Source: Agencies |
December 2, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FOUR South Korean sailors abducted by Somali pirates 19 months ago were released yesterday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said.
The MT Gemini, a tanker operated by Singapore-based Glory Ship Management, was hijacked by the pirates on April 30, 2011, with the four sailors, along with 21 non-Korean crew members, while heading to Malaysia from Kenya.
The pirates freed the vessel seven months later along with the non-Korean sailors, but kept the four Koreans captive, breaching an earlier agreement to release all crew members. "All four (South Korean) sailors have been freed on Saturday," a ministry statement said.
It added the sailors, now on a South Korean navy destroyer, would return to Seoul by air once procedures were completed.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Seoul officials as saying that the government backed the Singapore company in talks with the pirates.
There was no information on whether a ransom had been paid.
The MT Gemini, a tanker operated by Singapore-based Glory Ship Management, was hijacked by the pirates on April 30, 2011, with the four sailors, along with 21 non-Korean crew members, while heading to Malaysia from Kenya.
The pirates freed the vessel seven months later along with the non-Korean sailors, but kept the four Koreans captive, breaching an earlier agreement to release all crew members. "All four (South Korean) sailors have been freed on Saturday," a ministry statement said.
It added the sailors, now on a South Korean navy destroyer, would return to Seoul by air once procedures were completed.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Seoul officials as saying that the government backed the Singapore company in talks with the pirates.
There was no information on whether a ransom had been paid.
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