Five more South Korean-operated vessels cleared the strait of Hormuz on Thursday 25 June, bringing the total to 11 of roughly 24 stranded since Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) closed the waterway on 11 June1. The ships sailed under the toll-free window of the Islamabad memorandum and did not coordinate with the Channel 16 mandate the IRGC had just declared compulsory that morning. South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said its ships were "passing through the strategic waterway and sailing normally"2.
the strait of Hormuz is the narrow gap between Iran and Oman that carries roughly a fifth of global seaborne crude. South Korea is a flag state whose vessels were caught on the wrong side of the closure, and its government is the actor here, not Tehran. Twenty-one Korean sailors were aboard the five ships that left; 13 vessels remain stranded. Seoul's ministry confirming a normal transit is, in practice, a refusal to enforce the corps's order on its own fleet.
This is where the action-versus-words ledger lands on the water. The IRGC issued its mandate; the Korean masters declined to acknowledge it and sailed regardless. The corps had already demanded insurance registration and scheduled tolls from August, yet has interdicted no foreign hull to back any of it. Each Korean departure widens the distance between what Iran says governs the waterway and what actually moves through it.
