The South Korean navy destroyer Chungmugong Yisunshin, shown here, has caught up with a supertanker hijacked by Somali pirates with a cargo of crude oil worth as much as $170 million. REUTERS/Yonhap/FilesSomali Pirates: Why Don’t More Ships Have Private Security? -- Christian Science Monitor
Somali pirates have been attacking farther out into the Indian Ocean for months, but many ships – such as the South Korean supertanker nabbed this weekend – still do not travel with a private security detail. Why not?
Now that monsoon season is over, Somali pirates are back in action in a big way.
Their latest catch – a South Korean supertanker on its way from Iraq to the United States with crude oil worth more than $170 million – is the ninth ship to be seized in the past few weeks. Similar hijackings have fetched ransoms of more than $5.5 million.
A South Korean naval destroyer has now caught up to the 300,000-ton Samho Dream, though it is unlikely to launch an assault on the ship due to the highly volatile nature of the cargo, reports the Associated Press.
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