US Navy abandons North Korean vessel despite call for its detention
NAIROBI (AFP) — The US Navy has abandoned a North Korean cargo vessel off the Somali coast despite a call for its detention for alleged involvement in "suspicious activities," an official said Saturday.
"We did not detain the North Korean vessel ... We are not monitoring the ship," said Lydia Robertson, the spokeswoman for US Naval Forces Central Command.
Robertson did not indicate whether the vessel was probed by the US naval team, part of the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa (CTF 150), based in Djibouti to fight terrorism in the volatile region.
A US Navy destroyer was earlier tracking both North Korea's MV Dai Hong Dan and Japanese chemical tanker Golden Mori off Somalia after engaging pirates who had hijacked the vessels.
The Kenyan branch of the Seafarers Assistance Programme had urged the US Navy to detain the North Korean freighter and bring it to the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, where it would be searched.
The programme has suspected the vessel of using a fake name an involvement in unlawful activities in Somalia, a lawless African nation that has been wracked by war for 16 years.
The US military on Sunday destroyed two small boats that were tied to the Golden Mori, which has 23 Korean, Filipino and Myanmar crew on board, after it was hijacked off the coast of northern Somalia.
The USS James E. Williams (DDG 95) destroyer on Tuesday came to the rescue of MV Dai Hong Dan, helping the crew to regain control. Twenty-two sailors were on board from southern Asia.
One pirate was killed and others captured, but some pirates remain on board.
The CTF-150 also operate under international maritime conventions to secure international waters for commercial shipping and fishing.
Rampant piracy off Somalia's vast coastline stopped in the second half of 2006 during six months of strict rule by an Islamist movement, ousted by Ethiopian and Somali government troops at the end of the year.
Somalia lies at the mouth of the Red Sea and has lacked a functional government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre sparked a bloody power struggle.
