A liquefied natural gas carrier operated by a South Korean shipping company passed through the Strait of Hormuz, becoming the second Korean-operated vessel to leave the crisis-affected waterway. South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said eight Korean sailors were aboard and that the ship was travelling to a destination outside South Korea.
The ministry did not identify the carrier, its operator or the foreign company that chartered it. It said the decision to transit followed discussions between the Korean shipper and charterer. With the departure, the number of South Korean vessels still stranded around Hormuz fell from 25 to 24, while the Korean crew count declined from 147 to 139.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said it had repeatedly raised the need for quick and safe navigation with Iranian authorities and remained in contact with governments involved. The statement did not disclose the route, timing or security arrangements used by the LNG carrier, limiting public detail about how the passage was achieved.
The first Korean-operated vessel to escape the disruption was Universal Winner, a very large crude carrier run by HMM. It left under a South Korea-Iran agreement reached on May 20 and arrived near Ulsan on June 10, about three weeks after clearing the strait.
Universal Winner carried two million barrels of Kuwaiti crude belonging to SK Trading International. It had entered Hormuz on February 28, when US and Israeli forces began strikes against Iran, and later became one of 26 South Korean ships unable to proceed. All 21 crew members—nine Korean and 12 of other nationalities—were reported healthy.
At Ulsan, the tanker approached an offshore unloading installation used by SK Energy with help from tugboats and a harbour pilot. Its safe arrival completed a much longer journey than the LNG carrier’s transit announcement, which concerned passage through Hormuz rather than delivery at a Korean port.
The two cases showed that individual sailings were possible, but they did not amount to a general reopening for every Korean vessel. Most ships remained delayed, and officials continued to handle departures case by case with operators, charterers and regional authorities. Cargo ownership, vessel type and destination could create different operational constraints.
For South Korea, which depends heavily on imported energy, the movement of both crude and LNG carriers had significance beyond the crews involved. The June 11 passage reduced the stranded fleet by one while leaving the larger task—securing predictable, safe navigation for the remaining ships—unresolved.
The ministry’s aggregate figures also showed that the latest movement did not change conditions for most affected sailors. One successful transit was measurable progress, but 139 Korean crew members still depended on negotiations and individual sailing decisions.
