Korean chemists released after 29 days... From arrest to release

Sailors of the Korean chemical carrier'Korea Chemie', who were detained in the southern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, were released from detention on the 2nd (local time).

It has been 29 days since the Korean chemistry was captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the 4th of last month.

At the time of the capture, Korean Chemie was on the way to Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after departing from Juvali, Saudi Arabia, carrying three kinds of chemicals such as methanol.

High-speed boats and helicopters belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard approached the Korean Chemie near the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf Sea (Persian Gulf), and demanded that the route be diverted to Bandar Abbas.

The Korean Chemie entered Iran's territorial waters as requested by the Revolutionary Guards, and 20 sailors, including 5 Korean sailors, and the Korean Chemie were detained at the Port of Bandar Abbas.

The images and photographs taken by the Revolutionary Guards at the time of capture were spread throughout the world through local media and foreign media.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guard made a statement saying, "This is due to repeated violations of marine environmental regulations," and that "this measure is at the request of the prosecution and the Maritime Port Authority and will be handled by the judicial authorities."

However, DM Shipping, the shipowner of the Korean Chemie, refuted the reason for the seizure proposed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, saying that it did not cause environmental pollution, and Iranian authorities did not provide concrete evidence of environmental pollution.

The Korean government requested Iran to lift the early detention of Korean Chemie and sailors, and dispatched Choi Young-ham from the Cheonghae unit to the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz.

Choi Young, who was operating in the waters south of Muscat, Oman, arrived in the Strait of Hormuz on the morning of the 5th.

The revolutionary garrison captured the Korean chemistry because of environmental pollution, but an analysis was raised that the main reason was complaints about Iranian funds, which were withdrawn from Korea due to US sanctions.

Iranian funds frozen in Korea are estimated at $7 billion (about 7.6 trillion won).

Iran opened accounts in Korean won with IBK Industrial Bank and Woori Bank under the name of the Iranian Central Bank in 2010, and received payments for crude oil exports through these accounts.

However, the U.S. government put Iran's central bank on sanctions lists in 2018, stopping transactions through the account, and the Iranian government has demanded that the frozen funds be lifted.

In fact, shortly after the capture of the Korean chemist, high-ranking Iranian voices were asked to resolve the frozen fund problem.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Ravieri said at a press conference on the 5th of last month that "South Korea is holding Iranian funds 7 billion dollars hostage. If there is a hostage here, it will freeze our funds over 7 billion dollars for groundless reasons. It will be one Korean government,” he criticized.

Accordingly, the Korean government dispatched a delegation representing the first vice-minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Choi Jong-Geon to Iran to discuss the issue of the early lifting of the detention of ships and crew members and the issue of frozen funds.

The South Korean delegation interviewed high-level personnel including Iran's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Arakchi, President of Iran's Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Jaff, Chairman of Foreign Policy Strategy Committee Kamal Harraj, and Deputy Minister of Justice Mahmoud Hekmatnia.

However, they all maintained the position that "the frozen fund problem must be solved first" and that "ship capture is a technical problem not related to frozen funds."

In the end, the Korean delegation failed to lift the detention early and returned to Korea, and high-ranking Iranians continued to speak hard.

In an interview with Bloomberg News on the 19th of last month, the head of the Central Bank of Hemmati said, "The Korean government has not offered any credible channels." "Korea should show willingness to resolve the frozen funds problem."

Foreign Minister Zarif also criticized "Korea has taken money to buy Iranian food and medicine according to US orders," and "Eventually, the losers in this game will be Korea and Korean industry."

However, the two sides continued the dialogue through diplomatic channels, and the Korean government is known to have made various efforts to resolve the issue of Iranian freeze funds along with the removal of early detentions of ships and crew.

An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "At the beginning of the ship detention crisis, Iran had a bad mood due to the issue of frozen funds, but recently, we communicated almost every day and seem to have begun to believe in our efforts to resolve the frozen funds soon.

Eventually, after Vice Minister Choi Jong-Geon and Iran's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Arakchi spoke on the phone, the Iranian government decided to allow 19 sailors to leave the country, excluding the ship and the captain.