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| © News1 Designer Ilhwan Kim |
The Blue House immediately entered an emergency response system and is moving in dire need when it is found that a Korean merchant ship was captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
According to the Blue House on the 5th, related ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense are responding to the capture of a Korean national petrochemical material carrier in the Gulf from the day before.
The government recognized the Iranian vessel detention situation very seriously, and immediately after the incident, the head of the National Security Office, Seo-hoon, reported the situation to President Moon Jae-in, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Defense, etc. A video conference was held by the emergency departments involved.
In accordance with the presidential order that the National Security Office closely discuss countermeasures with the relevant ministries, the government will review the situation on a whole-of-government basis through a situation check meeting attended by the National Security Office at the National Crisis Management Center from 9 am to relevant ministries and NIS Shared, coordinated measures were taken.
Subsequently, at 3 pm, the National Security Council (NSC) working-level coordination meeting is held under the preside of Chairman Seo, the first deputy head of the National Security Office.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the afternoon of the previous day, the Korean chemical carrier’Korea Chemi’, which was sailing in the waters near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, moved to Iranian waters at the request of the Iranian authorities to investigate. The ship had a total of 20 sailors, including five Korean citizens and Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
It is known that the ship departed from the Jubail Petrochemical Pier, a port city in eastern Saudi Arabia, and headed to the latter of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), belonging to the Korean shipping company’DM Shipping’ (DM Shipping).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Iran in order to understand the situation of the ship’s detention and request the early release of the ship. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also expressed regret by calling the Iranian Ambassador to Korea to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this day.
In response to the seizure, the Ministry of Defense dispatched the Cheonghae unit 33rd Choi Young ship (4400 ton class), which was operating in the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Aden, to the Strait of Hormuz.
In the future, Young-Ship Choi plans to respond to the capture by cooperating with multinational forces such as the Combined Naval Command (CMF) in Bahrain, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
When Choi Young-ham performed his first mission to dispatch troops to the 6th Division of the Cheonghae Unit in January 2011, he successfully performed the’Operation Aden Gulf Dawn’ and rescued all 21 crew members of the Samho Jewelry who were captured by Somali pirates. On April 21 of the same year, the’Operation to Rescue the Hanjin Tenjin Sailors’ was also successfully completed.
Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said, “The government’s specific countermeasures to this situation will be unified and explained to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”