Korean Foreign Ministry News

Iran released on Friday a South Korean ship and its captain detained since January after South Korea promised to try to secure the release of Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks under U.S. sanctions, a South Korean official said.The Iranian foreign ministry said the chemical tanker, Hankuk Chemi, was released after an investigation into environmental pollution, and at the request of the South Korean government and its owner, state news agency IRNA reported.The seizure of the tanker in the Strait of Hormuz off Oman in January had triggered a diplomatic dispute after Iran demanded that South Korea release $7 billion in funds frozen in South Korean banks under U.S.

South Korea's foreign ministry is reviewing whether a senior diplomat would be visiting Tehran on Sunday as planned, an official said, after Iranian forces seized a South Korean-flagged chemical tanker in Gulf waters and detained its crew.The incident comes amid tensions between Tehran and Seoul over Iranian funds frozen in South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions. Iranian state TV cited a Tehran government official as saying Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun had been due to discuss Iran's demand that $7 billion in frozen funds be released.In Seoul a foreign ministry official told Reuters "the plan is unclear as of now" regarding Choi's visit.Iranian media said on Monday that Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps had seized the tanker Hankuk Chemi over pollution violations.

North Korea said on Tuesday the seizure of one of its cargo ships by the United States was an illegal act that violated the spirit of a summit between the two countries' leaders, and demanded the return of the vessel without delay.The North's foreign ministry said in a statement that it rejected U.N. Security Council resolutions against it which the United States cited in impounding the vessel, as a violation of its sovereignty."The United States committed an unlawful and outrageous act of dispossessing our cargo ship," an unnamed ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency."The latest U.S.

A court in Taiwan has released on bail a man prosecutors allege to have made false declarations in the case of a Hong Kong-flagged tanker suspected of transferring oil to North Korea in violation of international sanctions. The man, surnamed Chen, said the vessel was bound for Hong Kong, despite knowing it was bound for international waters to traffic oil products, the prosecutors' office in the southern city of Kaohsiung said on Wednesday. "The suspicion of crime is great," it said in a statement…

China on Friday denied reports it has been illicitly selling oil products to North Korea after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not happy that China had allowed oil to reach the isolated nation. Trump said on Twitter the previous day that China had been "caught" allowing oil into North Korea and that would prevent "a friendly solution" to the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes that it conducts in defiance of heavy U.N. Security Council sanctions. "I have been soft on China because the only thing more important to me than trade is war…

North Korea test fired a submarine-based ballistic missile (SLBM) from its east coast on Wednesday, CNN reports quoting South Korean authorities. The missile flew about 500 kilometres before splashing into the Sea of Japan — the first missile of its kind to reach such a distance. The launch took place at 5:30 a.m. local time, according to a statement from the South Korean Foreign Ministry. The South Korean government and experts said the launch showed technical progress in the North's SLBM program. Having the ability to fire a missile from a submarine could help North Korea evade a new anti-missile system planned for South Korea and pose a threat even if nuclear-armed North Korea's land-based arsenal was destroyed, experts said.

South Korea and the U.N. Command, which overseas the Korean War armistice, said on Friday they had begun a joint operation to keep Chinese fishing vessels from operating illegally off the west coast. The move comes after South Korean fishermen, frustrated with incursions by Chinese fishing boats in defiance of coast guard warnings, used rope to impound two Chinese trawlers this month and handed them over to authorities. South Korea's navy and coast guard joined with the U.N. Command to patrol the approximately 60 km (40 mile) stretch of waters in the Han River estuary that runs between the coasts of the rival Koreas, a Defence Ministry official told Reuters. "Our navy, coast guard and U.N.

In response to questions on the decision of the Court in the Republic of Korea to sentence two Indian mariners, an Indian government spokesperson said, on Dec. "Government of India is aware of the decision of the Court in the Republic of Korea to sentence two Indians – Captain J. “This matter was taken up by Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs today with the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea. At this meeting Government’s disappointment about the decision of the Court to reverse the earlier decision in which the two merchant marine officers were exonerated, as well as Government’s distress at the harsh prison sentences, was conveyed to the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea.