South Korea dispatched its first trial container ship through the Arctic on Saturday, testing whether a corridor opened by melting sea ice can become commercially viable, even as environmental groups warned that growing traffic on the route could accelerate polar ice melt.

The voyage comes as the Middle East war continues to rattle global shipping. The conflict, sparked by US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February, has roiled shipping lanes and sent governments and carriers scrambling to find alternative routes. Carriers are already familiar with such detours: since late 2023, attacks in the Red Sea have pushed much Asia-Europe traffic onto the longer Cape of Good Hope route around Africa.

The "PanStar Acro" container ship sailed from Busan New Port bound for Europe via the Arctic. "We would like to inform you that the vessel for the Arctic route trial voyage departed" at 9:30 pm, Seoul's oceans ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.

The ship is headed for Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdansk in Poland before returning, with the voyage expected to take about 45 days, according to the ministry.

The trial follows that of the Chinese container ship "Dubai Tower", which left the eastern port city of Ningbo for Europe this month, heading north through the Bering Strait before turning west along Russia's Arctic coast.

The usual maritime route between Asia and Europe runs through the Suez Canal, but travelling through the Arctic can cut the journey by around 7,000 kilometers and about 10 days, according to the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy. Traffic on the Arctic lane has so far consisted largely of Russian resource cargoes such as liquefied natural gas, with container transit still rare, making the two voyages early tests of scheduled box-ship service.

Why Lee Jae-myung is betting big on Arctic route

President Lee Jae-myung has championed the Arctic route as a faster Asia-Europe link, and the trial puts that policy to its first real-world test.

South Korea's Vice Oceans Minister Nam Jae-hon said the Arctic route was "bound to become an alternative" to Middle Eastern shipping lanes, as geopolitical risks and technological advances make it increasingly competitive.

Marc Lanteigne, a political science professor at the Arctic University of Norway, said the voyage -- coming soon after China's "Dubai Tower" began its own Arctic journey -- showed the Northern Sea Route was becoming normalised as a "secondary maritime transit corridor".

A successful voyage would demonstrate South Korea's interest in "developing alternative shipping sea lanes", he told AFP, amid concerns that the country could fall behind as Chinese firms expand regular services through the increasingly viable Arctic route.

Russia, ice and climate change

Some experts warn that South Korean ships using the Arctic route could risk breaching Western sanctions on Russia -- currently a key security ally of North Korea -- because they would receive Russian navigation and weather services involving payments, albeit small ones. Those services are difficult to avoid: Moscow has designated state nuclear corporation Rosatom as the route's sole infrastructure operator, with responsibility for icebreaker support and traffic management along Russia's Siberian coast.

South Korea's foreign ministry declined to comment when asked by AFP about the concerns involving Russia. The oceans ministry said this week that "consultations with key relevant countries and agencies" have been completed to "implement administrative procedures necessary" for the voyage.

Vladimir Tikhonov, a Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, said "strictly speaking, US and EU sanctions are not international law, unlike UN sanctions".

"And with continued uncertainty in the Middle East... South Korea may have few alternatives if the Arctic route proves economically viable," he told AFP.

Lanteigne said China's Northern Sea Route ambitions were more politically driven than South Korea's, with Beijing viewing the polar regions as "strategic new frontiers", raising Western security concerns.

Meanwhile, environmental groups warned that growing traffic along the shorter NSR could accelerate Arctic sea ice loss already driven by global warming. Major carriers including CMA CGM, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd have pledged to avoid Arctic shipping routes.

The NSR is believed to be accessible only during the time of year when the ice is melted enough to allow transits without icebreakers.

"The Northern Sea Route has become increasingly viable as the Arctic warms about four times faster than the global average, leading to a sharp decline in sea ice," South Korean environmental group Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center said in a statement last year.

"But making the route commercially viable would require further warming, putting the policy at odds with efforts to combat climate change." (AFP)

Source: Korea Herald Business