The owner of a South Korean-flagged tanker that was seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf on Monday has described how “armed soldiers” boarded the vessel.
The crew of the Hankuk Chemi tanker received a 10 to a 20-minute warning from Iranian authorities before the ship was boarded by troops, its owner, DM Shipping Co Ltd., told CNN in a statement Tuesday.
The company said its communication with the tanker was cut off as soon as the ship was seized.
Five South Korean nationals are among the 20 civilian mariners aboard the tanker, the South Korean foreign ministry said. Iran’s ambassador to Seoul told the South Korean government that the sailors who were on board “are safe”, South Korean officials said in a media briefing Tuesday. Seoul dispatched an acclaimed anti-piracy unit to the Strait of Hormuz following the tanker’s seizure.
The Cheonghae Unit, which includes South Korean special forces, arrived in the strait on Tuesday aboard the 5,000-ton destroyer Choi Yong, according to the South Korean defense ministry.
Tensions in the Persian Gulf have increased in the past week, near the one-year anniversary of the deadly US strike on Qasem Soleimani, a top Iranian general.
Then on Monday, Iranian boats seized the Hankuk Chemi as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf from the Arabian Sea.
Iran said the vessel was seized for “creating environmental and chemical pollution in the Persian Gulf,” the semi-official news agency Tasnim said. The vessel has been seized by the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the Mehr news agency.
But following the tanker’s seizure, an Iranian government spokesman claimed that two years ago South Korea had frozen $7 billion of Iranian funds which were currently held in a South Korean bank.
