A South Korean cargo vessel was hijacked by assailants suspected to be Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean Saturday afternoon.

Twenty-one crew members, including eight South Koreans, two Indonesians and eleven from Myanmar, were on board the ten-thousand-ton 'Samho Jewelry'.

The freighter was carrying chemicals from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul says that the crews are believed to be safe, adding that it is working on locating the ship.

The hijacking comes only two months after Somali pirates released a South Korean supertanker 'Samho Dream' and its 24 crews after seven months in captivity following an alleged ransom payment of over nine-million U.S. dollars.

However, a South Korean fishing boat, 241-ton 'Geummi 305' is still in captivity after it was hijacked in October of last year by Somali pirates in Kenyan waters.