[앵커]
A delegation departing for Iran at the dawn of yesterday (7th) arrived in Tehran to release our ship captured in the Persian Gulf, the Korean Chemi, and 20 crew members. The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains that it has nothing to do with the arrest of a ship, saying that our delegation’s visit was to discuss the issue of freezing the $7 billion of their oil sales tied to Korea. Negotiations are unlikely to be easy.
This is reporter Oh Sun-min.
[기자]
A delegation led by Go Gyeong-seok, head of the Africa Middle East Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arrived in Tehran, the capital of Iran, on the 7th local time.
According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Said Hativjade drew a line that the Korean delegation’s visit had nothing to do with the ship arrest.
He said the delegation was here to discuss the issue of freezing Iran funds in South Korea.
Spokesman Hativjade also stressed that it is “a group of the Korean vice ministers of foreign affairs, who are scheduled to visit on the 10th,” and “a visit agreed upon before the capture of a Korean ship.”
Negotiations are unlikely to be easy because it is different from the position of our delegation.
[고경석/외교부 아프리카중동국장 (어제) : 일단 외교부의 상대방을 만나게 될 거고요. 선박 억류 문제를 해결할 수 있는데 도움이 될 수 있다면 다양한 경로로 만날 거고요.]
Choi Jong-Geon, 1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, is also planning to visit Iran on the 10th with a 3-day, 2-night schedule.
It is expected that the detention of Korean sailors will be the first priority.
The on-site support team dispatched from the Korean Embassy in Iran met as a representative of a Korean sailor detained at Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.
Through interviews, we confirmed the personal safety of 20 sailors, including 5 Koreans.
It is known that one Korean is admitted to the hospital for abdominal pain, and the rest of the sailors are staying on the ship.
It is said that necessary supplies such as food are also sufficient.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, which captured the’Korea Chemie’, conducted maritime drills with 700 ships in the Gulf waters on the 7th local time.
It is about 450km west of where our ship was detained.