South Korean hostage released in Philippines: govt

A South Korean captain and a Filipino crewman abducted by suspected Islamist militants in the southern Philippines three months ago were released today, the presidential peace adviser said.

Jesus Dureza, a senior aide to President Rodrigo Duterte, said the two hostages were freed in Sulu, a remote archipelago known as a militant hideout.

In October, the Philippine military said armed men identifying themselves as Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped the pair from a South Korean cargo ship, the first such attack on a large merchant vessel.

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, and has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings-for-ransom.