BUSAN, Feb. 7 (Yonahp) -- One of
the four bullets removed from the injured South Korean captain of a
chemical freighter hijacked by Somalis last month was shot by South
Korean Navy commandos during their raid on the ship in the Arabian Sea,
the South Korean Coast Guard said Monday, wrapping up a probe on five
captured Somali pirates.
Seok Hae-kyun, the skipper of the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry, who has drawn keen national attention since South Korean naval special forces stormed the ship on Jan. 21 to free it from Somali pirates, still remains in critical but stable condition due to his gunshot wounds.
Seeking to obtain evidence to prove the pirates' criminal charges, the Coast Guard has secured three bullets out of four taken from Seok's body and tentatively concluded that one of them was from either a pistol, MP5 9 mm machine gun or MP5 silencer gun used by the South Korean Navy, Coast Guard officials said, noting one bullet was lost in Oman, where Seok was initially hospitalized.
"One bullet is from an AK rifle used by the pirates, while the other is suspected of being debris from the ship that pierced Captain Seok's body due to the shells," chief investigator Kim Jung-gyu said, noting that the state forensic agency will produce the final result by next week. "We have not yet confirmed which bullet was stuck into which part of Captain Seok's body."
Seok Hae-kyun, the skipper of the 11,500-ton Samho Jewelry, who has drawn keen national attention since South Korean naval special forces stormed the ship on Jan. 21 to free it from Somali pirates, still remains in critical but stable condition due to his gunshot wounds.
Seeking to obtain evidence to prove the pirates' criminal charges, the Coast Guard has secured three bullets out of four taken from Seok's body and tentatively concluded that one of them was from either a pistol, MP5 9 mm machine gun or MP5 silencer gun used by the South Korean Navy, Coast Guard officials said, noting one bullet was lost in Oman, where Seok was initially hospitalized.
"One bullet is from an AK rifle used by the pirates, while the other is suspected of being debris from the ship that pierced Captain Seok's body due to the shells," chief investigator Kim Jung-gyu said, noting that the state forensic agency will produce the final result by next week. "We have not yet confirmed which bullet was stuck into which part of Captain Seok's body."