Two South Korean ships hijacked six months ago by Somali pirates arrived in Yemen's southern port of Aden on Tuesday. Ali Ahmed Nasser, the director of the al-Awlaqy shipping agent company, said 21 crew members of the Mavuno 1 and 2 were taken to the Saber hospital in the al-Mansoura district for a medical checkup. Nasser said the crew reported that the hijackers had stolen most of the communication equipment on the ships.The pirates agreed to leave the ships Nov. 4 and headed back to Somalia. A U.S. Navy ship and a helicopter guided the boats further out to sea, where navy personnel boarded the vessels and gave the crew medical treatment.
The conditions of freeing the two ships were not known, but South Korean media have reported that the Somali pirates were demanding between US$700,000 and US$1 million in ransom. South Korea at the time said all the sailors on board the two ships were safe and the Foreign Ministry said the ships were being escorted to Aden port at the request of the South Korean government. The sailors included 10 Chinese, four South Koreans, three Vietnamese, three Indians and four Indonesians.