South Korean president calls for doing utmost to win release of citizen kidnapped in Libya

South Korea is doing all it can to win the safe release of a South Korean kidnapped in Libya, the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday, noting the country’s anti-piracy military unit stationed in the Gulf of Aden was already on its way to the North African country, Yonhap news agency reported.

“His country and his president have never once forgotten him,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said in a statement released one day after video footage showed the South Korean captive asking President Moon Jae-in to help win his release.

“On the first day he was abducted, the president ordered the government to do its utmost with all resources the country has,” Kim said.

He added “The government has been maintaining a close cooperation system with the government of Libya and other allies, such as the Philippines and the United States, since the day of the incident for his safety and release.”

The foreign ministry earlier said the South Korean was abducted, along with three Filipinos, by a group of armed insurgents on July 6.

The Cheonghae Unit and its 4,000-ton destroyer, the Munmu the Great, have been ordered to move to Libyan waters, apparently in preparation for a possible rescue mission.

“We are even listening to the silence of the desert as long as the information is related to the armed insurgents that kidnapped (the South Korean),” the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said.