Seoul, Oct 8 (IANS): South Korea is strictly enforcing its export controls on Russia, the foreign ministry said on Thursday, stressing that no exports of commercial petroleum products to Russia have been confirmed through customs clearance procedures.
Currently, South Korea prohibits exports of strategic items to Russia and subjects an additional 1,402 non-strategic items that could potentially be used for military purposes to case-by-case export authorisation, according to the ministry, reports Yonhap news agency.
“The controlled items are determined through interagency discussions after comprehensively considering their potential military use, economic impact and international coordination,” the ministry said in an explanatory note jointly issued by the industry ministry and the customs agency.
Outbound shipments to Russia dropped to US$4 billion in 2025 from $10 billion in 2021 as South Korea joined international efforts to maintain peace through export controls “despite the economic burden on companies and the public,” the ministry noted.
The comments came after a report by the Britain-based Guardian on Tuesday that more than 176,000 tons of petroleum products, mostly diesel, were loaded at South Korean ports and shipped to Russia’s Far East in July and August.
Following the report, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on sanctions policy, said the shipments had helped ease Russia’s fuel shortages amid the war in Ukraine, a claim rejected by the South Korean presidential office the previous day.
The ministry said official trade statistics showed no exports of diesel, jet fuel or gasoline from South Korea to Russia through the customs clearance process from 2025 through August 2026.
It also stressed that commercial petroleum products are not subject to South Korea’s export controls on Russia, meaning that loading such products at South Korean ports does not in itself constitute a violation of domestic law.
The government will further examine the vessels’ actual routes and declared destinations before determining whether any domestic laws were violated.
“The government will take action in accordance with the law if violations are confirmed,” the ministry said. “We will continue to strictly implement export controls on Russia and strengthen efforts to inspect and prevent circumvention of exports as a responsible member of the international community.”
