S Korea seizes Hong Kong ship for oil transfer to North: Seoul
29 Dec 2017 3:53 PM GMT
Seoul: South Korea briefly seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered ship in November for transferring oil products to a North Korean vessel and breaching UN sanctions, a foreign ministry official said on Friday.
The Lighthouse Winmore, which was chartered by a Taiwanese company and carrying around 600 tonnes of oil products from South Korea's Yeosu port, transferred part of its cargo to a North Korean vessel on October 19, the official said.
South Korean customs authorities briefly seized and inspected the ship when it returned to Yeosu Port on November 24, he said.
The ship, chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group Corp, previously visited Yeosu on October 11 to load up on Japanese refined oil before heading towards its purported destination in Taiwan.
Instead of going to Taiwan, however, the vessel transferred the oil to the North's Sam Jong 2 as well as to three other non-North Korean vessels in international waters, the official said.
"This marks a typical case of North Korea shrewdly circumventing UN Security Council sanctions by using its illegal networks", the official told journalists.
"The actions taken will be reported to the UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea in the future," he said.
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