Debris from a fire-damaged cargo ship said to have been attacked by unidentified aircraft in the Strait of Hormuz arrived in South Korea on Friday for investigation, the foreign ministry said.
Iran has largely blocked shipping through the vital strait since conflict broke out with the United States and Israel on February 28 and Washington blockaded Tehran’s ports.
HMM Namu was struck by “two unidentified aircraft” on May 4, hitting the outer plate of the vessel’s port-side ballast tank near the stern and causing a fire in the engine room, Seoul, a US ally, said at a press briefing on Sunday.
The Panama-flagged cargo vessel, operated by South Korean shipping firm HMM Co., had arrived in Dubai last week for investigation.
Its debris “arrived in South Korea by air following consultations with the UAE government” on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The vessel debris is “scheduled to undergo detailed analysis by a specialized institution”, it added without providing further detail.
Seoul said the aircraft involved in the attack “were captured on CCTV footage, but there are limitations in identifying the exact type, launch origin and physical size of the objects”.
A senior government official told local media this week that the “likelihood that the (attacking) entity was someone other than Iran is low.”
Tehran has denied responsibility, with its embassy in Seoul posting a statement on its website in the days following the attack, saying it “firmly rejects and categorically denies any allegations regarding the involvement” of its forces.
Seoul strongly condemned the attack and said it hopes to identify those behind it through a thorough investigation.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, relies heavily on Middle Eastern fuel imports, most of which transited through the Strait of Hormuz during peacetime.
As a major petrochemicals producer and refiner, the closure has forced South Korea to impose a fuel price cap for the first time in nearly 30 years.