{"id":98721,"date":"2026-05-05T12:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98721\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T12:15:19","slug":"explosion-rocks-south-korean-cargo-ship-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98721\/","title":{"rendered":"Explosion Rocks South Korean Cargo Ship in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Korean authorities are investigating<\/a> the cause of a fire on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz after an explosion occurred on the Korea-operated cargo ship HMM Namu on Monday. \u00a0<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, South Korea\u2019s presidential office convened a meeting to discuss its response to the fire aboard the bulk carrier operated by South Korean shipper HMM Co.<\/p>\n

The Panama-flagged vessel was anchored in waters offshore the United Arab Emirates (UAE) when the explosion occurred early on Monday Middle Eastern time. The fire started in the engine room, with the cause under investigation by both the company operating the ship and the South Korean government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt remains unclear whether the incident was caused by an external attack or an internal malfunction,\u201d an official at HMM told Korean news agency Yonhap on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by Reuters<\/a> that \u201cThe exact cause of the accident would be figured out after the vessel is towed and its damage is assessed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

HMM, the ship\u2019s operator, plans to tow the vessel to Dubai, which is expected to take several days. No injuries have been reported, and all crew are safe and accounted for, the shipper said.<\/p>\n

According to industry officials who spoke to Yonhap, South Korea-operated ships that remain in waters off the UAE have started moving west toward Qatar in line with government measures to steer clear of the Strait of Hormuz for safety.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump posted<\/a> on Truth Social that \u201cIran has taken some shots at unrelated Nations with respect to the Ship Movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean Cargo Ship,\u201d and that \u201cPerhaps it\u2019s time for South Korea to come and join the mission!\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea has not commented on President Trump\u2019s accusation that Iran targeted the ship.<\/p>\n

The situation in the Strait of Hormuz remains very tense<\/a> and the U.S.-Iran ceasefire on teetering on the brink after the U.S. said it would guide vessels out of the Strait while Iran threatened to attack any foreign forces attempting to enter the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com<\/p>\n

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korean authorities are investigating the cause of a fire on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9851,1985,34533,102,3580,2779,143,524,106,101,709],"class_list":{"0":"post-98721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-cargo-ship","9":"tag-explosion","10":"tag-hmm-namu","11":"tag-hormuz","12":"tag-investigation","13":"tag-iran-tensions","14":"tag-maritime-security","15":"tag-shipping-disruption","16":"tag-south-korea","17":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","18":"tag-uae"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116521921568727314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}