By Kang Hyun-kyung
Delegates from the members of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) will hold a seventh meeting Wednesday in New York, under the chairmanship of South Korea.
Moon Ha-yong, ambassador for overseas Koreans and consular affairs, will lead the meeting amid growing concerns over maritime safety here as several Korean vessels have been hijacked in Somali waters.
They were released after a ransom was paid.
The supertanker Samho Dream was released last Saturday night after being held by the pirates for 217 days. The ship’s owner reportedly paid the pirates a record high ransom in return for freeing the sailors.
The Korean trawler Keummi 305 was hijacked in waters off Lamu, Kenya last month and is still being held there.
The pirates reportedly demanded $4 million as ransom.
A government official explained to reporters that the owner of the ship, who was aboard, was being held along with other sailors and his company is near bankruptcy.
“As a result of that, it will be unfeasible for the ship’s owner to pay such a huge ransom,” he added.
During the CGPCS meeting, delegates are expected to address concerns over the negative fallout of Somali piracy on international trade.
Kim Young-sun, spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told reporters that about 100 officials from the CGPCS member countries and international institutions “will discuss ways of bolstering military cooperation to fight Somali piracy, protect ships crossing the Indian Ocean and strengthen capacity building.”
The seventh meeting is taking place five months after the last one held in New York on June 10 under the chairmanship of Greece.
Wrapping up that meeting, a statement was released concluding that piracy off the Somali waters posed a serious threat to international navigation.
In the statement, they shared the view that the root causes of piracy should be properly addressed.
“From this point of view, there is a strong need for well-coordinated efforts in the field of regional capacity-building by all international players involved, in close cooperation with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and regional authorities,” it said.