The chief engineer of the South Korean fishing boat that was released last week after more than four months of being held captive by Somali pirates has died.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Kim Yong-hyeon, chief engineer of the "Geummi 305," died after falling from a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya.

A ministry official says the 68-year-old Kim died after falling from the hotel at 2:25 a.m. Thursday local time, and that local police are investigating the cause of his death.

The South Korean Embassy in Kenya says it has requested that the Kenyan government conduct a speedy and fair investigation into the case.

Kim had been staying at the hotel after the fishing boat arrived in the Kenyan port city from Somali waters on Tuesday.

The 241-ton Geummi 305 was released along with its 43 crew members, including two South Koreans on February ninth, 123 days after it was hijacked. The trawler was hijacked on October ninth last year while fishing for crab in waters near the Kenyan island of Lamu in the Indian Ocean.