Iran Agrees to Release Most South Korean Hostages from Oil Tanker After Reported U.N. Dues Deal

This just shows that Iran’s hostage taking works:

This CCTV image shows South Korean oil tanker MT Hankuk Chemi arriving in an Iranian port after it was seized by Iranian troops on Jan. 4, 2021. An Iranian speedboat is seen in the red circle. (Yonhap)

 South Korea is finalizing talks with the United States about using some of Iran’s money frozen in Seoul under U.S. sanctions to pay Tehran’s U.N. dues in arrears, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday. 

Such progress in the talks for solutions to unblock the Iranian assets in South Korea appears to have affected Tehran’s decision to release most of the crew members of a seized South Korean oil tanker, according to the official. 

On Tuesday, Tehran said its judiciary gave permission to free the sailors, except for the captain, from the MT Hankuk Chemi that has been seized by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps since Jan. 4 over allegedly polluting the ocean. Twenty sailors were aboard the ship, including five South Koreans. 

Despite the Iranian government’s denial, speculation has mounted that the ship seizure might be related to Tehran’s discontent over its US$7 billion locked in South Korean banks due to U.S. sanctions.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if you are a South Korean citizen traveling in areas with authoritarian regimes just remember you are a prime hostage target.

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setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

Now that they have “paid the Danegeld”, they’ll never “get rid of the Dane”…
https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/dane_geld.html

And they have put a “Kidnap me for big $$$” sign on the back of every South Korean outside of South Korea.

Korean Man
Korean Man
3 years ago

LOL…I know that every single topic in this forum turns into a Korean bashing, but how do you even manage to turn this topic into another Korean bashing comment? South Korea is just doing America’s bidding by blocking the payment for the oil that it bought from Iran. Because of you Americans unable to get along with the rest of the world, there are South Korean citizens being held hostage.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

What was Korea bashing? This was Moon bashing. And if you were Korean instead of Chinese, you’d be in danger, too…

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
3 years ago

“I know that every single topic in this forum turns into a Korean bashing”

That’s not true at all.

When Antifa/BLM came up, Roof Koreans got high praise for motivation and marksmanship.

Now give me more of that Van Rollover Pr0n.

This time, can it be 14 illegal alien Guatemalan leftist escaping the systemic violence inherent in pro-United States Latin American military dictatorships propped up by CIA-funded right-wing paramilitary death squads? And make sure at least a quarter of them are unaccompanied children; preferably with disabilities or chronic diseases and big watery doe-like eyes.

setnaffa
setnaffa
3 years ago

Can we get a shout out for Canadian Pirates? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuGGNsE3_8Y

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