... back in early February, I got a few tips regarding a ship that had been hijacked by pirates. There were a few people interested in MV Rim - a ship noted for being low on the water while supposedly on the way to a scrap yard.
MV Rim was able to escape yesterday by overcoming their pirate captors when a firefight broke out between rival clans. OK, so we have a ship that apparently wasn't insured, never announced itself to the international community when traveling through pirate waters, was on its way to be scrapped and yet has a load of cargo, and was given a high ransom price despite supposedly being a ship of no value, no insurance, and a small crew. That isn't much to work with...
But then rival pirate gangs break out into violence over this worthless ship? What the hell is going on?
Oh... did I mention the ship was North Korean?
More here:
MV RIM Sails Free After Somali Pirate Shoot-out, Leaving 9 Dead - Crew Safe
The mysterious scrap-vessel MV RIM was seized on February 02, 2010.
The North-Korean-flagged, originally Libyan owned general cargo vessel MV RIM was captured - en route from Eritrea to presumably Yemen - in the north-western Gulf of Aden just south of the Yemeni coast on 2nd February 2009 . Though a coalition ship USS PORTER that works closely with EU NAVFOR and a helicopter from USS FARRAGUT, both of CMF CTF 151, confirmed that the RIM had been hijacked, EU NAVFOR headquarters first declined to confirm the report on 2nd to Somalia's anti-piracy envoy - only to report it then a day later.
EU NAVFOR then stated that the vessel was sea-jacked to the north of the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC), was not registered with MSC HOA and has had no communications with UKMTO, the British operation in Bahrain.
The relatively small coastal cargo ship of 4,800 tonnes is still listed in the ship registers as being owned by White Sea Shipping of Tripoli in Libya, while in reality it was allegedly sold now to another company for her last cargo trip with a load of clay and with a final destination at the scrapyards in India. Rumours that it actually was carrying weapons destined for the Yemen rebels persisted.
Luckily, all eyes are on all the "Peace activists" striving to bring humanitarian aid to the Gazans. We wouldn't want the world's attention to be distracted by a North Korean ship with an unknown cargo, low in the water, sailing in the most volatile part of the world.
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