South Korean naval commandos Thursday boarded a Seoul-owned container ship in the Indian Ocean following reports of a pirate attack and found all crew members safe, the military said.
A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff had no further immediate details and could not say whether any pirates were found on the 75,000-ton Hanjin Tianjin, which has 14 South Koreans and six Indonesians on board.
A briefing was expected to be held later.
The ship had reported an attack at 5.15am Thursday Korean time (2015 GMT Wednesday), according to its owners Hanjin Shipping. Seoul’s foreign ministry said it believed the vessel had been hijacked.
Hanjin said it had lost contact with the crew after the reported attack 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of the Yemeni island of Socotra. It said the ship had remained stationary since the report and the crew might have locked themselves in a special room known as a citadel, built to protect crewmen from attackers.