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| Seen above is a South Korean oil tanker detained at a port in Busan for allegedly violating United Nations sanctions on North Korea. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decided early Tuesday (KST) to release two of the four vessels detained in South Korea for allegedly violating economic sanctions on North Korea.
According to the UNSC's committee handling affairs related to the sanctions on North Korea, vessels P. Pioneer and Lighthouse Winmore will be freed from detention, the South's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The U.N. authority made the decision after they took into consideration the ship owners' promise not to repeat the incident which went against the U.N. sanctions on the North, the ministry said. The owners submitted memoranda including such details to the U.N.
According to U.N. resolutions, any vessels, which are detained for violating sanctions on the North, can be released after their owners make official pledges not to engage in such acts again.
P. Pioneer, a South Korean oil tanker had been detained in a port in the nation's southern city of Busan since September last year. Lighthouse Winmore, a Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker, had also been detained in the southwestern coastal city of Yeosu since late November in 2017.
The two vessels are suspected of having taken part in illegal ship-to-ship oil transfers. In particular, this was the first case in which a South Korean vessel has been detained on suspicion of violating the U.N. sanctions against the North.
The U.N., however, is detaining two other stateless vessels. The Koti is suspected of engaging in an illegal ship-to-ship oil transfer, with Talent Ace detained for allegedly attempting to provide coal to the North. The former has been detained at a port in Pyeongtaek Gyeonggi Province since December 2017, and the latter is also being kept in detention at a port in the southeastern city of Gunsan.
"We expect the latest decision to set an example and help drive other U.N. member countries to thoroughly abide by the sanctions on the North," an official from the ministry said Tuesday.
