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This article has explored a variety of issues related to Somali piracy and the necessity for the three Northeast Asian countries, South Korea, China, and Japan, to cooperate about it. While the Somali pirates contend that their attacks originate in the need to punish illegal vessels of foreign countries, this article points out that their indiscriminate attacks on international ships cannot be tolerated and that the growing number of attacks, hostage-taking, and ransom demands constitute a grave threat to international peace and security. The Security Council managed to come up with an international consensus that the Somali piracy and armed robbery constituted a threat to international peace and security. On the basis of this consensus, the Security Council has adopted a series of resolutions in which concrete measures were enumerated under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Security Council has become the focal point for mobilizing resources of the member states and the other international governmental and non-governmental organizations. In this connection, this article argues that the three Northeast Asian countries, South Korea, China, and Japan need to seize this opportunity to expedite trilateral cooperation in the maritime field on the basis of their past habits of cooperation and dialogues accumulated for a long time. In particular, it pays attention to the newly established Tripartite Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) as a dialogue forum for trilateral naval cooperation. In this way, the current situation in the waters off the coast of Somalia might be able to allow a cautious optimism about its eventual solution. Trilateral naval cooperation regarding the issue of Somali piracy might be able to bring a positive outcome to both the piracy issue itself and the long-standing disputes over islands in the region.
