South Korea seeks navy support against Somali pirates

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's military will seek parliamentary approval to send naval vessels to waters off Somalia to protect the country's commercial vessels from pirates, government officials said on Wednesday.

In the past few weeks, Somali pirates have captured a South Korean cargo vessel and held hostage South Korean sailors who were part of the crew of a Japanese ship.

"The Defense Ministry is planning to submit legislation in December for the dispatch," said one official who asked not to be named.

Local media said the ministry wanted to send at least one destroyer to the region. If parliament approves the measure, ships would likely be deployed early next year.

The ministry would not comment on timing of the dispatch or the make up of the naval contingent, although its officials have said it would be led by a destroyer.

On Tuesday, a Saudi supertanker seized by Somalia pirates with a $100 million oil cargo in the world's biggest ship hijacking reached Somalia. The U.S. navy said the ship was seized 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya at the weekend.

And a Hong Kong-flagged ship loaded with wheat bound for Iran was hijacked by Somali pirates.

Increasingly brazen pirate activity in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean waters off Somalia has driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.

(Reporting by Jack Kim and Kim Junghyun; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Nick Macfie)