By Heejin Kim
SEOUL, May 5 (Reuters) – South Korea is reviewing whether to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to help ships transit through the Strait of Hormuz, an official said on Tuesday, following an explosion and fire on a Korean-operated ship in the waterway.
Trump blamed Monday’s incident on an Iranian attack, while Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the cause of the fire would only be confirmed after the vessel was towed back to port.
The Panama-flagged cargo ship operated by South Korean shipper HMM was empty and at anchor when the explosion and fire occurred.
The ministry said there were no casualties and the fire had been extinguished. The ship, called HMM Namu, would be towed to a nearby port for a damage assessment and repairs, it said.
South Korea believes the “safety of international maritime routes and freedom of navigation should be protected under international law,” said Choi Soung-ah, a presidential secretary, noting Seoul’s participation in international efforts to normalise global shipping chains.
“In this context, we are watching President Trump’s remark related to this,” she said. A text message from the Blue House confirmed it was reviewing Trump’s suggestion to participate in a plan to free up navigation in the strait.
In a post on social media, Trump said Iran fired shots at a Korean-operated ship and other targets as the U.S. launched its operation to open the strait. He suggested that South Korea could join the effort. In normal times, about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the waterway.
South Korea will send officials to the Gulf to investigate the damaged ship, the presidential office said, adding it would take several days to analyse the cause of the blaze.
An HMM spokesperson said the 24 crew remained on board the 35,000-ton general cargo vessel.
The fire had broken out in the engine room and surveillance camera footage showed it had been extinguished, the spokesperson said.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard said authorities would investigate whether the damage might have been caused by an attack, a drifting sea mine or another external object.
In response to the incident, South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said on Tuesday it had asked Korean vessels in the area to move to safer locations and said authorities were in close communications with shipping companies and stranded vessels.
The South Korean government has said 26 South Korean-flagged vessels were stranded around the Strait of Hormuz.
South Korea has so far been cautious about becoming too directly embroiled in the Middle East conflict.
Seoul previously said it would carefully consider Trump’s call to send ships to ensure safe passage through the waterway, though such a move would require legislative approval.
The country’s foreign minister recently sent a special envoy to Iran to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
South Korea already has some forces in the Middle East after deploying a unit in 2009 to escort its merchant vessels sailing near the Somali coast. It has since sent a rotation of destroyers with an attack helicopter and about 260 crew members.
(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Jonathan Saul; Editing by Ed Davies, Neil Fullick and Thomas Derpinghaus)
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