Warship to secure release of Korean, 3 Pinoys

CAPTIVES A screen grab image from the video shows the four hostages sitting in the desert at an undisclosed location in Libya.—AFP/SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP

South Korea on Thursday deployed a warship to Libya in an apparent show of force to secure the release of a Korean national and three Filipino engineers being held by gunmen since July 6 in the North African country.

The 4,000-ton vessel, Munmu the Great, which takes part in antipiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, is now on its way to Libya to help secure the release of the four hostages, officials said.

The Filipinos and the South Korean were abducted in an attack on a water project site in western Libya on July 6.

Military support

In addition to “carrying out its duty of protecting commercial vessels, (the Korean warship) is also preparing for all possibilities including the need for military support,” a South Korean defense ministry spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The South Korean and Philippine governments confirmed the four hostages were featured in a video shared on social media this week.

The video, also posted by the Site Intelligence group, shows them addressing the camera in English.

An armed guard is pictured squatting behind them in the sand, but their captors are not identified and the attack has not been claimed by any group. It was not clear when the video was shot.

“The Philippine embassy in Tripoli has confirmed that the three men in the video are the three Filipino technicians who [were] taken by armed men in Libya last month,” Elmer Cato, spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs, told AFP.

Close cooperation

A spokesperson for Seoul’s presidential office said the government was doing “its utmost” to seek the release of the Korean captive.

“His country and his president have never once forgotten him,” spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement.

“The government has been maintaining a close cooperation system with the government of Libya and other allies, such as the Philippines and the United States, since the day of the incident for his safety and release,” Kim said.

Since former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was ousted from power and killed in 2011, foreign workers and diplomatic missions have frequently been targeted by militias or jihadists such as the Islamic State group. —AFP