A South Korean delegation plans to attend an international conference this week on how to tackle piracy problems in waters off the coast of Somalia, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The 14th plenary session of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, set for Wednesday at the U.N. headquarters in New York, is aimed at strengthening international cooperation and drawing up viable means to tackle piracy in Somalia and neighboring nations, the ministry said in a statement.

The CGPCS was established in 2009 under a U.N. Security Council Resolution to coordinate actions among some 60 nations and 30 international organizations to combat Somali pirates, and has five working groups under its arm.

South Korea, which assumed the chairmanship of Working Group 3, plans to present the group’s efforts to provide vessels with self-defensive means to deter hijacking by pirates in the waters off Somalia.

The South Korean delegation, led by Moon Ha-yong, ambassador for counter-terrorism and international cooperation, also plans to attend the meeting of the entity’s board of directors to discuss how to operate its trust funds to boost the ability to clear the seas of pirates.

After vowing to grant $500,000 to the CGPCS trust funds, the Seoul government paid $100,000 in 2011 and plans to give the remaining $400,000 this year.

“South Korea will continue to proactively take part in international cooperative activities to resolve the Somali piracy problems considering some 30 percent of the country’s cargo ships sail through the piracy-stricken seas and they have often been victimized by the pirates,” the ministry said.

South Korea has deployed a destroyer with some 300 special Navy troops since early 2009 in the Gulf of Aden to patrol pirate-infested waters off the African nation under a U.S.-led multinational campaign. (Yonhap News)