File photo
Seoul: A South Korean oil tanker is currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the country's Foreign Minister said on Wednesday, marking the first transit by a South Korean vessel through the waterway since the regional tension began.
"At this very moment, our oil tanker is passing through the Strait of Hormuz," Foreign Minister Cho Hyun told lawmakers at the National Assembly in Seoul.
"It is the first South Korea-flagged ship to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since the Iran war began," a foreign ministry official told AFP.
Ship-tracking site MarineTraffic showed the South Korea-flagged tanker Universal Winner on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz near the entrance to the Gulf of Oman, bound for the southeastern South Korean city of Ulsan after departing Kuwait's Mina Al Ahmadi port.
The passage comes weeks after a South Korean-operated vessel was hit by airborne objects near the Strait of Hormuz, heightening concerns in Seoul over the safety of South Korean shipping in the region.
