A South Korean warship is chasing a supertanker that was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, which was transporting crude oil from Iraq to the US.
The ship is carrying crude oil worth more than $170 million. The hijacking took place hundreds of kilometres from the coast of Somalia in an area of sea normally thought to be safe from this kind of attack.
The South Korean navy already had a ship posted in the Gulf of Aden to assist with protecting ships in the area, and the country has now ordered the warship to stop the oil tanker before it reaches the African coast.
However the ship is unable to enter into a gun battle, due to the volatile cargo, making recapturing the tanker extremely difficult.
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