Iranian government “released the kidnapped Korean Kemiho crew”
Reporter Kwon Sang-guk [email protected]
Input: 2021-02-02 22:11:31Revision: 2021-02-02 22:17:48Posted: 2021-02-02 22:18:07
The chemical carrier’Korea Chemie’ is being captured last month by ships belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. yunhap news
The Iranian government announced its intention to release the crew of the Korean chemical carrier’Kemiho Korea’, which was captured in the Strait of Hormuz last month.
On the 2nd (local time), Reuters reported, citing a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying, “At the request of the Korean government, we will release Korean sailors who were detained for causing environmental pollution in the Persian Gulf.”
‘Korea Chemie’ departed from Juvali, Saudi Arabia at 3:30 a.m. on the 3rd of last month, and was captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the morning of the 4th while heading for Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). done. The Strait of Hormuz, the point of capture, is a strategic point, with about a third of the world’s maritime crude oil transport. At that time, 20 people including Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Myanmar nationals, including five Korean sailors, were on board.
The Iranian side claimed that the’Korea Chemie’ polluted the sea, but it has not yet provided evidence for this. The ship owner DM Shipping expressed doubts on the background of the capture, saying, “The captain of the Korea Chemiho is a veteran with 15 years of experience, and the sea area where the ship was captured was a place where ships belonging to the shipping company frequently come and go.”
Inside and outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the US’s Iranian sanctions are cited as the background of the Korean Chemie’s arrest. In 2018, when the U.S. government raised sanctions against the Iranian Central Bank, account management was suspended, and Iran’s funds are currently tied to more than 8 trillion won in Korean banks alone.
According to Marine Traffic, a real-time ship location tracking site,’Kemiho Korea’ is staying near Bandar Abbas, a port city in southern Iran.
On the day of the arrest, the government dispatched Choi Young-ham of the Cheonghae unit to the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, and discussed ways to freeze Iranian assets that were frozen in commercial banks in South Korea under the U.S. Iranian sanctions through diplomatic channels.
Reporter Kwon Sang-guk [email protected]