“At [2300 hours] on Sunday, the vessel was hijacked while sailing through the southern Red Sea, and it came under armed robbery by two boats carrying terrorists belonging to the Houthi militia. The Houthis have a criminal precedent undermining the security of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the southern Red Sea with their acts of kidnapping and piracy," Saudi spokesman Col. Turki Al-Maliki stated at a press conference.

The Saudi ship was reportedly among three vessels seized within 3 miles (4.8 km) off Uqban island and taken to the Salif port in western Yemen.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry official announced Tuesday that there were three vessels seized by the Houthi rebels and that two of them are South Korean ships.

The Red Sea is a major oil shipping route, bordered to the north and west by the African nations of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti, and by Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the east. The conflict in the Arab world's poorest country began in 2014, when Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and captured much of Yemen's north.

Maritime Business World