South Korea seizes ship suspected of violating sanctions on North

South Korea seized a ship suspected of violating sanctions against North Korea last Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

A 3,000-ton ship, Deyi, is forced to dock in waters off Gamcheon Port in the southeastern city of Busan on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

South Korea seized a ship suspected of violating sanctions against North Korea last Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The South Korean government has previously detained ships suspected of violating sanctions, but the seizure of a vessel in its territorial waters is considered unusual and seen as Seoul ramping up measures against Pyongyang.

The 3,000-ton cargo ship, Deyi, departed from Nampo Port in North Korea late last month and was headed to Vladivostok, Russia, after stopping in Shandong, China, according to the Foreign Ministry. The exact nature of the ship’s suspected sanctions violations is under investigation by South Korean authorities and is still unclear as the ship’s captain has refused to open the cargo hold and is not cooperating with the investigation, the ministry said. After the ship failed to comply with the stop order, the Coast Guard boarded the vessel and moved it to a marina in Busan's Namhang Port. The ship was carrying 13 people, including a captain of Chinese citizenship and Chinese and Indonesian crew members.

However, as Nampo Port is known to be a key hub for North Korea’s illegal coal exports, the ship may have been involved in related activities.

The ship's seizure reportedly occurred on March 30 in territorial waters near Yeosu in South Jeolla. The United States is believed to have provided the South Korean government with circumstantial evidence of suspected sanctions violations. After the capture, the South Korean government moved the vessel to a marina in Namhang, Busan.

“We are conducting an investigation based on close cooperation between the United States and South Korea regarding the ship’s alleged violation of Security Council sanctions against North Korea,” said a Foreign Ministry official.

The capture by South Korea is in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2397, adopted in December 2017, which authorizes member states to seize vessels suspected of engaging in activities prohibited by international law in their territorial waters. The resolution also mandates the prompt exchange of information on suspicious vessels among member states.

Previously, Seoul detained several ships suspected of violating sanctions that entered South Korean ports, such as the Panamanian-flagged oil tanker Katrin, suspected of illegal transshipments with North Korean ships, in February 2019. The Katrin was investigated for about four months before being scrapped. The decision to go further and seize a suspected vessel could express the South Korean government’s intention to implement the UN Security Council resolution more actively.

It is also noteworthy that the seizure happened just after the Security Council failed to extend the mandate of the panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea due to Russia’s veto on March 28. The panel, a watchdog for sanctions implementation since 2009, will expire on April 30.

In response, the South Korean government plans to fill the gap left by the panel’s absence as much as possible by strengthening the sanctions monitoring network in cooperation with allied countries.

On Tuesday, Seoul also designated two ships, two organizations and two individuals as targets of new separate sanctions for their involvement in the illegal arms trade between Pyongyang and Moscow and the unlawful transfer of North Korean workers overseas.

This was the first time the South Korean government had announced unilateral sanctions targeting only Russian-flagged ships, organizations and individuals. It is seen as a signal that South Korea will step up its response to Russia's series of sanctions-busting activities.

BY PARK HYUN-JOO, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]