Somali Pirates Hijack North Korean-Crewed Ship (Updated Below)

North Korea’s notoriously rickety freighters must be as enticing to Somali pirates as my 1979 Impala with the red clear tape over the left taillight lens was to Rapid City, South Dakota’s finest. As recently as May, the South Korean Navy thwarted a pirate attack on a North Korean ship. The pirates, now said to be under the charismatic leadership of a fat white kid, are trying to rebound from more aggressive international enforcement efforts with a spate of new hijackings, including this one:

The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken on Monday in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north-west of the Seychelles. It had been heading for Mombasa, Kenya, but was diverted north, Navfor said. [BBC]

The pirates are holding the 28 North Korean crew members hostage, adding to another 200 hostages from various nations currently in their collection. Word through unofficial diplomatic channels is that the pirates have offered to release the crew if Kim Jong Il personally flies to Somalia to retrieve them, carrying an undisclosed sum. And this time, no supernotes.

The combination of a North Korean crew and a Singaporean ship is suspicious in light of the recent UNSCR 1874, which allows limited port inspections of North Korean ships. The idea of a pirate attack also opens up some delectable possibilities for inspections at sea, which the resolution doesn’t allow.

Overall, pirate attacks have fallen dramatically due to increased naval patrols and the fact that some people refuse to be hostages. Yes, the pirates were stupid enough to attack the Maersk Alabama again. Last time, the unarmed crew repelled the pirates with courage and resourcefulness alone. This time, they repelled the pirates with courage, resourcefulness, and hoglegs:

Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device. […]

Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early Wednesday about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast, but guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking. [AP]

Although attacks are down overall, the BBC report describes a long spate of attacks in recent days. For that, we owe no thanks to Spain, which recently took the unilateralist course of paying the pirates a $4 million ransom, but as everyone knows by now, it is the Spanish way to grovel and surrender.

Update: Reuters reports that the captain of the Theresa VIII has died of wounds received during the hijacking. It does not state clearly whether the captain was North Korean, although the crew is. Der Spiegel, which labors under some confusion about the ship’s nationality, has a photograph of it. Honestly — who turns North Koreans loose with a chemical tanker this big?

2 Responses

  1. As I noted in my own blog, I’m surprised how little this has been discussed in the K-blogs. I am curious about their “chemical” cargo, their destination, why I keep seeing different destinations for where the tanker’s flag is (one said Kiribati and now you say Singapore), and what kind of ransom these guys think they could get.

    Maybe instead of money they will get paid in meth. Seriously, I wonder if that is a possibility.

    And I don’t know if the word from the unofficial diplomatic channels was a serious one or not, but I don’t think KJI will show up in person to deliver any ransom until they build a railway to Harardhere.

  2. Here is a thought. The North Korean crew might be experiencing a higher quality of life as a hostage in Somalia than they had at home.