South Korea to trial container ship in Arctic in September

South Korea will do a test run of a container ship through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) in September.

A 3,000 TEU vessel will sail from Busan to Rotterdam, as South Korea seeks to exploit the Arctic as a short cut to Europe.

Acting Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Kim Sung-beom announced the test trip on 8 January, two weeks after the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) launched a NSR Development department. Officials from MOF, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have been deployed to the department.