Gemini: hijacked Korean Captain phones VOA

Captain Pak Hyeon of the South Korean-managed, Singapore-flag hijacked Gemini contacted VOA by phone July 16, saying the pirates want Seoul to pay compensation for eight dead comrades and release another five held prisoner. He said the pirates have not named a price.
He also said he and three other crew members are being kept separate from the other hostages. Pak said that the pirates are treating him and his fellow 24 crew members well and that they do not believe they are in any immediate danger. But he said they are fed only twice a day, kept inside aboard their ship and are homesick.
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Samho Jewelry: Somalia accepts frozen bodies

Somalia agreed to take over the remains of the eight pirates killed by ROKN seals and South Korea agreed to pay for transporting them. Seoul is considering various transportation means, including chartering a cargo plane. It is expected to take at least a week to complete the process.

The bodies were being kept in a refrigerator aboard the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry after the Jan. 21 rescue operation to free the cargo ship and its 21 crew members. Five other pirates were captured and all of the crew were rescued alive, though the captain was seriously wounded.

The chemical carrier has since moved to the Omani port of Muscat and is stationed there. On February 9, the bodies were removed from the ship and taken to a police hospital mortuary in Oman. The freighter planned to leave the port later February 10.
Yonhap

Samho Jewelry: no country would take detainees

- South Korea is considering forging agreements with some neighboring countries of Somalia to seek their help in handling captured pirates, an official said Wednesday.

The move came after Seoul was unable to find a country willing to accept the five pirates captured in last month's commando operation to free the South Korean freighter Samho Jewelry and its 21-member crew.

The pirates were then brought to South Korea for investigation and trial.
Yonhap

Samho Jewelry: Serum, Ali, Brallat, Arai, arrested

The South Korean Busan District Court approved the issuance of arrest warrants in the hijacking of Samho Jewelry for the suspects ― identified as Serum Abdullah, Ali Abdullah, Ali Abukad-Aeman, Brallat Aul and Arai Mahomed ― on suspicions of maritime robbery and attempted murder.
“Many of them do not speak Arabic, which is widely used in Somalia. Since their country has been engaged in internal feuds for decades, there are barely any documents to certify their identification,” an official added.

Meanwhile, the government is planning to bury the bodies of the eight dead pirates at sea as the Somali government has been lukewarm in taking them. Seoul officials called the offered handover a humanitarian approach, but the Omani government, who stepped forward as a mediator, said it is yet to receive any response from the Somali counterpart.

Samho Jewelry, registered in Valletta, Malta [Malta-flag] by Global Shipholding 1, an investment product of Acta Holding ASA, Stavanger, Norway, with a bareboat charter back to Samho Shipping Company, South Korea, the disponent owner of the vessel.
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US Navy

Golden Wave: South Korea says boat illegal

Golden Wave, with two Koreans, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans [39 Kenyans ?] aboard, a source based in Kenya reported, hijacked by pirates while fishing in waters about 10 miles off Lamu, Kenya, in the Indian Ocean.

Now it is reported that it was forced to help the pirates hijack other vessels in November and December because no ransom had been paid for their release.

According to an alert by the NATO Shipping Center (NSC), part of the Allied Maritime Command Headquarters Northwood, it and two other hijacked vessels “have left the anchorage and are assessed to be used by pirates as motherships.” Kim Dae-geun, it is said, was infected with malaria recently and was allowed to halt his forced assistance to the pirates.

In South Korea, it is considered an illegal fishing boat because it is registered as a local trawler and did not receive government approval for fishing in foreign deep seas. Owner Kim Dae-geun already took out a 100 million won ($89,405) loan from the government by using the ship as collateral. compare
earlier

Samho Jewelry: "No! No! Not a sixpence!"

USNI Proceedings Magazine - December 2010




The reality is that Somali pirates actually pirated just 48 ships out of the roughly 33,000 that passed through that area in 2009, taking a total of 846 hostages—freeing all of them, without fail, as ransom negotiations were concluded. . Barbary pirates were successful most of the time; Somali pirates fail most of the time. The latter have a success rate of around 25 percent, largely due to best practices by the merchant ships themselves. Barbary pirates put general commerce in their region of operation in peril. They successfully pirated a significant amount of merchant tonnage; every single merchantman was vulnerable to attack. Somali pirates have attacked less than one third of 1 percent of traffic in their area of operation, and most ships of the type that carry international commerce are not vulnerable to Somali pirates at all.
Today our foreign commerce is carried largely on foreign-flagged ships—just about 2 percent (or less) moving on U.S. vessels. We are completely dependent on foreign-flagged tankers for oil imports, as there are no U.S.-flagged tankers—for either crude or product—in the true foreign commerce of the United States. The same goes for bulkers used in the export of our agricultural products. The total foreign-going, U.S.-flagged fleet is down to about 100 ships, and most of those are not really in the foreign commerce of the United States. (Pinckney's supposed retort, "Millions for defense, sir, but not one cent for tribute," is the origin of the famed shibboleth, although the words were NOT his. Pinckney did, however, exclaim at one point in the conversations: "No! No! Not a sixpence!")"
By Stephen M. Carmel, senior vice president with Maersk Line,

Samho Jewelry: retaken by storming ROKN Seals

South Korean destroyer Choi Young, with some 300 special troops, pursued the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry and special forces stormed the Samho Shipping Co. earlier today and freed all hostages,"the forces captured five pirates alive. There were 13 pirates aboard the Samho Jewelry.
The South Korean captain of the ship suffered a gunshot wound to his stomach during the operation, but his condition is not life-threatening, Lee said. As the operation began, the destroyer and Lynx helicopters fired warning shots in the air after the elite forces silently approached the deck of the Samho Jewelry. Armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, the pirates put up resistance and the South Korean forces immediately returned fire.

The operation, which took place in high seas about 1,300 kilometers off northeast Somalia, lasted about five hours. Tuesday's firefight left several pirates missing, and they are believed to have been killed, though their bodies have not been found, officials said. Three South Korean soldiers suffered minor injuries and were sent to a hospital in Oman.

Friday's rescue operation came after a brief gun battle on Tuesday when the South Korean destroyer Choi Young detected Somali pirates who apparently got off the vessel to hijack a Mongolian vessel nearby.

The South Korean special forces aboard a fast-sailing Navy boat and a Lynx helicopter were dispatched to rescue the Mongolian vessel, sparking the gun battle.

Samho Jewelry: no direct negotiations with pirates

The government remains firm not to directly negotiate with the pirates or pay ransom. Foreign Ministry said it will "not get dragged into" the psychological warfare often launched by the Somali pirates. Korea Herald Korean ships sail through the waters more than 500 times a year, so protecting all of them is impossible. Dong-A Ilbo "From March to October last year, a total of 925 Korean vessels passed by the waters off Somalia. More than 20 percent of the ships that pass through this pirate-infested region of the world are Korean-flagged vessels, and some 29 percent of its shipping freight must sail through this danger zone. JoonAng Daily Ships operated by large Korean conglomerates apparently hire former special forces soldiers who served in Eastern Europe or Central Asia, paying them more than $10,000 a day during the five to seven days the ship passes through pirate-infested waters. In most countries, It is no use deploying the destroyers after a commercial ship has been hijacked and it could actually endanger the lives of the hostages. Chosen Ilbo The news comes as a blow for Samho Shipping after it wrapped up a nightmarish seven months of negotiations with Somali pirates last November for the return of the Samho Dream, which was hijacked last April. The negotiations were reported to have been dragged out by major investors in the pirate ring, who kept hiking up the ransom amount.

The company ended up paying $9.5 million. earlier

Golden Wave: hijacked. Really?

Golden Wave ex-"Keummi 305," 241-ton trawler with two South Koreans, two Chinese and 39 Kenyans aboard, was hijacked on Oct. 9 by the pirates while crab fishing in waters about 10 miles off Lamu Archipelago, Kenya, near the Indian Ocean. 54-year-old captain is the president of Keummi Fishers based in the southern port city of Busan.
Company shut down its Busan office in 2007 due to financial problems, and Kim had been master of the ship for two years to save costs.

Samho Dream: $170 million worth of crude

$170 million worth of crude oil was aboard Samho Dream, which can carry more than 2 million barrels of crude oil.
U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp said it was the owner of the crude oil cargo aboard the Samho Dream, which was hijacked off the east African coast.

Valero Energy Corporation is an independent petroleum refining and marketing company that owns and operates refineries in the United States, Canada, and Aruba. The Company produces conventional gasolines, distillates, jet fuel, asphalt, petrochemicals, lubricants, and other refined products as well as diesel fuel, low-sulfur and ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, and oxygenates.

SAMHO DREAM: VLCC hijacked, Haradheere next

Samho Dream IMO Number 9235737 Flag: Marshall Islands, SAMHO SHIPPING CO.,LTD, 319,360 DWT ,VLCC Build.Dec.2002.
Supertanker was hijacked off Somalia on a voyage from from Iraq to Louisiana. The ship was now heading for Haradheere, the port and pirates' base at which many ships are held during ransom negotiations. MUTUAL UNDERWRITING, U.K.



ex- NEPTUNE, Liberia-flag
SELLERS DYNACOM. TANKERS MANAGEMENT. GREECE $136.50m
WORLD PROGRESS since 2004 Feb 04 sold ORIENTAL SHIPPING LIMITED

No. 9 Han Chang ends nuclear confrontation

North Korea told the United States July 14 that it had shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and readmitted a permanent international inspection team, completing its first step toward reversing a four-year-long confrontation with the United States. Rice and Mr. Hill worked around Mr. Cheney to strike the deal, which awarded the North large shipments of oil as it took the first steps to end its nuclear production capacity.

The United States also cleared the way for the return of $25 million frozen in a Macao bank that the administration had said was largely North Korea’s ill-gotten gains from counterfeiting and arms sales. A South Korean ship, No. 9 Han Chang loaded with 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil arrived at Sonbong, a port in northeastern North Korea, on July 14,

North Korean freighter, MV-Omranili, detained

Mumbai Docks
A North Korean freighter, MV-Omranili, was spotted in the Indian waters on October 29. The Coast Guard escorted the freighter to the Bombay docks. When questioned, the crew members told the Coast Guard they were on their way to Bandar Abbas in Iran and strayed into the Indian waters as the engine had developed a snag. here South Korea has turned down an American request for help intercepting North Korean ships suspected of carrying supplies for the Communist regime’s programs to build weapons of mass destruction. South Korea decided not to become an official member of the initiative and instead would remain content with its status as an observer “because of our special situation.” here