Did fuel leave South Korea for Russia? Records raise questions, but proof remains elusive.

Whether South Korea shipped fuel to Russia has emerged as a fresh flashpoint between Seoul and Kyiv after the two sides clashed over the handling of the transfer of North Korean prisoners of war.

The Guardian reported on Oct. 6 that seven tankers loaded more than 176,000 tons of fuel, mostly diesel, at South Korean ports in July and August and made 14 voyages to Russia's Far East. Of them, three were under British and European Union sanctions, and one took on its cargo at sea, a practice that can mask a shipment's origin.

The Lee Jae Myung administration, however, said its trade statistics show no diesel, gasoline or jet fuel exported to Russia from August of last year through this August. Nor, it said, did any such products leave for Russia through official customs clearance, regardless of where they were produced.

But the complexity of petroleum trade statistics, their inability to capture every transaction and the possibility of inaccurate customs filings make it hard to know what actually happened.

The Korea JoongAng Daily examined what has been verified and what remains unknown.

Was the fuel actually exported from South Korea to Russia?

The evidence is not yet conclusive, primarily because the country's publicly released customs data contradicts the figure quoted by the Guardian.

The British newspaper based its report on port records and ship-tracking data, stating more than 176,000 tons of fuel were shipped from South Korea to Russia, but Seoul's official customs data shows zero exports to Russia during the period.

Assuming both sets of figures are correct, the discrepancy likely reflects a difference in scope: the customs data counts only shipments that clear customs with a formal declaration.

The South Korean government reaffirmed last week that no fuel exports to Russia had been declared to customs.

However, a source at the Foreign Ministry was quoted by local media outlets as saying that the ministry "would examine the vessels’ actual routes and whether they differed from their declared destinations."

Some experts suggested that the fuel may have reached Russia through independent traders rather than directly from South Korean refiners — a type of transaction not captured in official customs data.

“A refiner sells to a trader, and if the trader falsifies the paperwork and takes it to Russia, the refiner has no way of knowing or blocking it,” said Park Ji-won, a senior researcher on Russia and Eurasia at the Export-Import Bank of Korea’s research institute, who also advises the state trade agency Kotra.

“The intermediary may not be a South Korean company, or the cargo could even be declared as something other than petroleum.”

They could be loaded at nearby terminals instead of the refiners’ own piers, or held only briefly in storage, much like goods in a bonded warehouse. The publicly available customs data does not capture all such cases.

The port records kept by Seoul’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries show at least three departures in July in which tankers left Ulsan carrying petroleum products, with a Russian port as their declared destination. Other vessels listed Russia as their next port of call upon arrival but declared a different country when they left, leaving their final destination unclear. None had berthed at a pier named for a refiner.

Again, port records alone cannot verify who sold the fuel, or whether the seller was a South Korean company at all.

Some experts suggest that the sheer size of the country's refining trade may be a factor.

South Korea imports all its crude yet ranks fifth in the world in refining capacity, at about 3.4 million barrels a day, and exports petroleum products to some 70 countries, according to the Korea Petroleum Association.

Ulsan and Yeosu have long had large tank terminals and blending facilities, and rules changed this year allow transshipped fuel to be blended in South Korea and reexported.

“Because South Korea is Northeast Asia’s major hub for producing, storing, blending and transshipping oil products, it is structurally prone to problems in tracking final destinations,” said Lee Sang-joon, a professor of Russian and Eurasian studies at Kookmin University.

"Refiners are not contracting with Russian firms, but international traders move cargo from storage terminals by ship, through third countries or transfers at sea," Lee said. "The trade is split into stages, and the refiner loses sight of where it ends up."

Did sanctioned tankers sail from South Korea to Russia?

Port records indicate that some did.

Several of the tankers that declared Russian destinations are under international sanctions, according to data from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

Layla was first sanctioned by Britain and the European Union in 2025, amid accusations that it belonged to Russia's "shadow fleet," which Moscow uses to evade price caps and embargoes imposed by the Group of 7 nations and the European Union on Russian crude and petroleum products.

Layla arrived in Ulsan on July 16 and left on July 19, declaring Vladivostok as its next port and carrying 27,469 tons of petroleum products logged as export cargo, according to the ministry's port records.

It returned from Vladivostok on Aug. 9 and left the next day, this time declaring Niigata, Japan, as its next port of call.

The Aura Maris, a Cameroon-flagged tanker that entered Yeosu on Aug. 12, spent three days at anchor and left, declaring Vladivostok as its destination, is also under international sanctions for evading restrictions on Russia and transporting oil illicitly.

The Astoria and the Pacificos, both of which called at Ulsan, are sanctioned. The Russian-flagged Astoria listed Vladivostok as its next port of call upon arrival on July 31, but switched it to an unspecified Japanese port upon departure on Aug. 1.

Does this mean South Korea has broken the law or international sanctions?

No. Neither selling fuel to Russia nor using a sanctioned tanker to carry it violates South Korean law.

Commercial diesel, jet fuel and other refined products are not on South Korea’s list of goods restricted for export to Russia. The sanctions on these vessels were imposed by the European Union, Britain, Canada and others under their own laws, which do not apply in South Korea.

The domestic list centers on industrial machinery, electronics and vehicles, chosen for their potential military use, economic impact and coordination with allies.

"Under the Foreign Trade Act, South Korea bans exports of strategic goods to Russia outright and requires case-by-case approval for 1,402 other items with possible military applications," the Foreign Ministry said.

However, if the Layla, which declared Niigata, Japan, as its destination, is found to have delivered its fuel to Vladivostok, it could face allegations of false declaration under South Korea’s own Customs Act regardless of sanctions.

Also, if the fuel was sold to Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, as the report says, the financial institutions and companies that handled the trade would face the risk of secondary sanctions from abroad. The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has placed Rosneft on its Specially Designated Nationals list, freezing its assets and barring transactions with it.

BY SARAH CHEA   [[email protected]]