The four Korean sailors of the MT Gemini have been freed nearly 19 months after being held captive by Somali pirates. A ransom was reportedly paid by the tanker’s owner, Glory Ship Management of Singapore, but the exact amount has not been revealed.
We console them and their families from the bottom of our hearts for their ordeal during this period and deeply sympathize with the tears they shed when boarding a Korean warship after being released. It’s comforting that all of them, including captain Park Hyun-yeol, are in good health, and hopefully they will recover from their trauma soon.
The tanker was carrying 28,000 tons of crude palm oil from Indonesia to Kenya when it was hijacked in the waters off Somalia on April 30 last year. At the time, the four Koreans and 21 sailors of other nationalities were aboard the MT Gemini.
Seven months later, the pirates freed all 21 non-Korean crew members along with the vessel but broke an agreement to release the entire crew and kept the four Korean sailors captive. In return for their release, the pirates called for freeing the five Somali pirates who were captured in our naval operation in the Gulf of Aden in January last year.
It’s appalling to hear that the four seamen lived the lives of caged ``animals’’ and didn’t have access to clean water. And probably we can understand the depth of the captain’s pain after watching him describe the most difficult moment as being when pirates made the sailors telephone their families before firing warning shots and twisting their ears and necks to make them scream so as to scare their relatives.
In October, families of the four kidnapped seamen held a press conference in Seoul and appealed for their release in public after being frustrated by failing to secure the freedom of the hostages for more than 500 days.
The Korean government deserves both credit and blame.
We first applaud the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for abiding by the principle not to negotiate with pirates despite an uproar of protests and pressures down the road. This policy must be righteous and inevitable, given captain Park’s remarks after his release that ``ransoming pirates could put our nationals at the greater risk.’’
But the government can’t avoid criticism for having been lax in taking preventive measures against the Somali pirates’ possible revenge attacks in the wake of the ``Dawn of Gulf of Aden’’ operation. The foreign ministry also needs to reflect on itself with respect to criticism that the Korean seamen have been captive for too long.
True, the number of pirate hijacking cases in Somali waters is declining thanks to the presence of naval forces from major countries, but there is lingering concern that fresh attacks could take place at any time because of the pirates now being jailed in Seoul. This is why both the government and businesses should double their efforts to prevent similar incidents.