Ransom paid for kidnapped Korean sailors off Somalia.

According to the International Herald Tribune, among others, a Korean shipping company paid a ransom to Somalian pirates in exchange for 22 sailors---8 Koreans, 14 Burmese---kidnapped last month. Piracy seems to be the second-favorite pastime of Somalis, behind starvation, and it remains to be seen how others will react to this direct funding of terrorism.

Considering the large number of ships and sailors taken in those waters it's unlikely the Korean ship was targetted, but this payoff calls to mind the hostage crisis in 2007, when South Korea paid a ransom to the Taliban in exchange for the release of the boneheaded missionaries who tried to convert the masses.


Missionaries mocking the danger signs at Incheon Airport prior to departure.