South Korea aims broadside at pirates
By Donald Kirk
SEOUL - It was one thing for 4,000 South Korean soldiers to have to go to
northern Iraq to join a war that seemed remote from the country's immediate
interests. It's quite another, however, for pirates to be threatening South
Korea's lifeblood in the waters off East Africa.
That seems to be the message as South Korean troops in Iraq give up the medical
and engineering projects on which they've been working for the past four years
and close down the operation. While that's going on, the South Korean Navy is
preparing to fight against piracy in the waters off Somalia.
At the forefront of the charge is a 4,500-ton stealth destroyer that is
expected to be on its way by the end of the year. The government is still
weighing the wisdom of the go-ahead order to
send the ship on its long journey into pirate-infested waters, but the capture
of a 20,000-ton Japanese freighter with five South Korean sailors aboard seems
to be tipping the balance.
The decision is sure to spark a debate in the National Assembly, which has to
pass a bill to authorize the dispatch of the ship on what will be a rotating
six-month tour. Assuming the bill is finally passed after the usual acrimonious
bickering, the country's five other stealth destroyers will take their turn in
the war against piracy. The KDX-11 class destroyers will travel with two
helicopters aboard, along with an array of precision-guided missiles that
should be capable of wiping out pirate ships from far away.
And that's not all. The Foreign Ministry has announced it is churning out a
manual advising on the proper way to deal with acts of piracy.
The manual, however, is not likely to advise crew members to pack weapons or
otherwise risk their lives combating miscreants as they scale the sides of
their vessels. Rather, it will establish guidelines for answering the pirates'
demands -and ensuring the safety of their victims.
In view of the non-stop kidnapping, said the ministry, the government "is
working on a response manual containing official response policies in case such
kidnappings occur in the future".
Assuming the pirates are not especially intimidated by all the firepower ranged
against them, officials were quoted by Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, as
saying, the navy would also send special forces from the navy SEAL team, along
with an underwater demolition team.
The South Koreans will coordinate closely with American and Japanese forces, on
which they will rely for resupply of food, fuel and other provisions to keep
them afloat for the tour.
The decision to draft a bill for the navy to participate in the anti-piracy
operation came after pirates this week seized a Saudi supertanker with US$100
million worth of oil aboard. Although the tanker was not destined for South
Korea, the fact that the South relies on imported oil to fuel its industrial
economy appears to have prompted the government to decide to act.
The supertanker was hijacked three days after the seizure off the Somali coast
of the Japanese freighter Chemstar Venus with a crew of five South
Koreans and 19 Filipinos. The crew was reported safe.
Amid negotiations for their release, South Koreans were reminded of the capture
in September of eight South Koreans as well as the capture last year of two
South Korean fishing boats and the seizure in 2006 of a tuna-processing ship.
All the incidents happened off the Somali coast and all crew members were
finally released.
Despite the planned commitment to the anti-piracy effort, South Korean military
analysts were not particularly optimistic about stopping the piracy. They
questioned, among other things, what good the latest missiles aboard a
destroyer would do against pirates aboard small craft that first had to be
identified as pirate ships before being firing on.
One South Korean military expert said many more vessels would be needed and
suggested governments get together on forming convoys of commercial vessels
defended by a multi-national force.
South Korean defense officials did not support suggestions for placing troops
aboard commercial vessels. They warned that merchant ships were generally
required by international law to travel unarmed and might be denied admittance
to ports if armed.
The only answer, they said, was a massive build-up in naval forces in the
region. They also warned of piracy closer to home, in the Malacca Strait, the
scene of numerous acts of piracy in recent years.
While debating how to deal with piracy, defense officials talk proudly of South
Korea's sometimes controversial role in Iraq. The soldiers went there on a
non-combat mission, they said, but fulfilled their mission of providing
assistance.
With the return of troops from Iraq, they anticipated an expanding role in
fighting piracy. For now, however, they said South Korea would send a single
destroyer, heavily armed, with support troops aboard.
Journalist Donald Kirk has been covering Korea - and the confrontation of
forces in Northeast Asia - for more than 30 years.
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