South Koreans foil pirate attack on North Koreans

While tensions may be high between the governments of North and South Korea, that didn't stop a warship from the South from foiling a pirate attack against a cargo ship from the North off the coast of Somalia.

On Monday a heavily-armed helicopter from the South Korean warship came to the aid of the North Korean vessel, which was being chased by a pirate ship. The South Korean helicopter circled over the North Korean ship and was preparing to open fire on the pirates when they thought better of he attack and retreated. The chopper then escorted the North Koreans to safer waters. The North Korean ship broadcast several messages of thanks to the South Korean helicopter and its mothership the destroyer Munmu the Great, which has been part of the anti-piracy flotilla off Somalia for the past month (it also replaces the Russian frigate Fearless as my favorite name among anti-pirate warships serving off Somalia).

Speaking of the Russians, they still haven't figured out what exactly to do with 29 suspected pirates seized last week by their current member in the anti-pirate coalition, the Admiral Panteleyev, though they have identified some of the 'pirates' as actually being Iranian and Pakistani fishermen. In the past, Somali pirates have seized foreign fishing vessels off the Somali coast and then used them as 'motherships' to launch pirate attacks against other larger ships further out at sea, sometimes with members of the mothership’s original crew still aboard.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested that an international court be set up to try suspected pirates.