SEOUL, South Korea - A South Korean-owned container ship may have been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, officials in Seoul said Thursday, adding they have sent a warship to the area.

Hanjin Shipping Co Ltd lost contact with the 75,000-ton Hanjin Tianjin around 5 am Thursday (2000 GMT Wednesday) and it is suspected to have been hijacked, said Cho Byung-jae, a spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He said an emergency response team had been formed to deal with the incident and that the Choi Young, a 4,400 ton helicopter-carrying warship with a crew of 200, had been deployed to help in a possible rescue attempt.

The Hanjin Tianjin had a crew of 14 South Koreans and six Indonesians, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported. It said the ship transmitted a distress call in pirate-infested waters about 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Yemen's Socotra island just before contact was lost.

The company did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

In recent years Somali pirates operating off the east African coast have hijacked at least eight South Korean ships, all of which were released, many after South Korean companies paid a ransom.

In January, South Korean commandos attacked the Samho Jewelry after it had been hijacked, killing eight pirates and arresting five others, with no loss of life to crew members. The surviving pirates were brought back to South Korea and are now awaiting trail.

Cho ruled out the possibility that the South Korean government might hold talks with the Hanjin Tianjin's purported captors.

"It has been our government's consistent position that we do not negotiate with pirates," he said. "This will not change in the future."