Somalia Pirates Seize Korean Oil Tanker

The South Korean Foreign Ministry announced that a South Korean-owned oil tanker with 24 seafarers on board is thought to have been hijacked by Somali pirates. The hijacking is said to have occurred Sunday April 4th about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) southeast of the Gulf of Aden. A ministry official says that a South Korean naval vessel operating in the Gulf of Aden received a call from the tanker saying three Somali pirates had boarded the vessel. The ministry says five crew members are South Korean and 19 are Filipino. The 300,000-ton-class tanker was sailing from Iraq to the U.S. state of Louisiana.