Today marks the 10th deployment anniversary of the South Korean Navy's Cheonghae Unit.
The anti-piracy naval unit has been stationed in the gulf,.... protecting the vessels and citizens off the coast of Somalia.
Kan Hyeong-woo reports.
Wednesday marks the 10 years since the South Korean Navy deployed the Cheonghae Unit to the Horn of Africa.

As the first South Korean unit to be deployed on a warship overseas,... the anti-piracy unit with some 300 personnel has carried out a range of missions in the Gulf of Aden since 2009 to protect not only South Korean but also foreign vessels.

The Cheonghae unit came into the spotlight in 2011 when it carried out the well-known mission "Operation Dawn of the Gulf of Aden" to rescue the South Korean freighter Samho Jewelry and its twenty-one crew members from Somali pirates.

Since then, the unit has successfully conducted a number of other rescue missions. It ensured the safety of the crew of the cargo vessel Hanjin Tianjin, sailors abducted from the tanker Gemini... and other South Koreans kidnapped by pirates in waters off Ghana as recently as last year.

The Cheonghae Unit has also expanded its role in protecting international waters by working with the Combined Maritime Forces and the European Union to counter piracy and terrorism.

As of February this year, the Cheonghae Unit has escorted and provided assistance to some twenty-thousand ships in waters off conflict-ridden Somalia, and has fought off Somali pirates twenty-one times.

The Navy plans to hold a ceremony at its operational command in the southern port city of Busan to celebrate the Cheonghae Unit's 10th anniversary on March 19th.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News