A senior Navy officer said the number of pirates in the Gulf of Aden has decreased 67 percent over the last three years largely because of strengthened surveillance by multi-national forces.
“However, there are about 1,000 hard-core pirates in the region. They have become more violent,” said Chung An-ho, a rear admiral (lower half) who returned home after leading anti-piracy operations in the gulf located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.
In an interview with the Hankook Ilbo, sister paper of The Korea Times, on Tuesday, Chung said since pirates found it more difficult to hijack ships than before, they have now resorted to keeping hostage sailors captive for longer durations. He also said, the pirates have become increasingly vicious as well by engaging in execution of their captives and mounting brazing attacks on nearby ports targeting anchored vessels.
Four South Korean sailors have been held hostage for more than 500 days with negotiations for their release between the Singaporean shipping company and Somali pirates seemingly deadlocked, according to a Seoul Official.
The official in question stated that the pirates are demanding a ridiculous ransom sum as a condition for the release of the captured sailors.
The sailors have been held captive since the 21,000-ton vessel MT Gemini, operated by Singapore-based Glory Ship Management was hijacked in waters off the coast of Kenya. Among the initial 25 crew members on board, 21 of them were released with the exception of four Korean nationals after the pirates agreed to free all the crew members including the hijacked vessel following the payment of an agreed ransom. However, the kidnappers reneged on their initial agreement with negotiators, leaving the hostages in limbo.
Chung said there were no reported cases of hijacked vessels under his leadership of anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden between June and September this year.