The Panama-flagged bulk carrier HMM Namu is seen in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China on Jan. 5. The vessel is operated by Korean shipper HMM. [REUTERS/YONHAP]
The seafarers’ union of the Korean shipping company HMM said the fire on the Korea-operated cargo ship HMM Namu may have been caused by a drifting mine near the Strait of Hormuz.
“A floating mine lost in the waters could have exploded,” Jeon Jeong-geun, head of the union, told reporters in Busan on Thursday.
Jeon’s remarks suggest an external shock wave may have set off the engine room fire despite no visible hull damage.
HMM Namu, a Korean-operated bulk carrier anchored off the coast north of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, suffered an explosion and fire on the port side of the engine room at about 8:40 p.m. on Monday. The vessel was located near the Strait of Hormuz.
“The government sent out a safety alert at the time warning that round, uneven objects suspected to be mines were drifting in the Gulf of Oman,” Jeon said on Thursday. “The risk of drifting mines in the Strait of Hormuz has been raised consistently since the early stages of the conflict.”
“Floating mines don’t require direct contact to explode, and they can detonate when they detect nearby vibrations or waves. It’s possible that an external shock wave affected the engine room’s fuel system and caused the fire.”
Jeon Jung-keun, head of the seafarers’ union at HMM, speaks in Busan on May 7. [NEWS1]
Crew members on board at the time also reported hearing a loud explosion, further supporting the possibility of an external impact.
“If the blast was loud enough to be heard by nearby vessels, it’s difficult to attribute it to a simple onboard equipment malfunction,” Jeon said. “An explosion of that scale is unlikely to have originated solely from the vessel’s own systems.”
He also noted that the Namu runs on heavy fuel oil, which is less prone to ignition than gasoline. “Given the nature of the fuel, it’s unlikely that internal factors alone would have caused a large-scale explosion,” he said.
There has been no confirmation of hull damage or flooding as of press time.
The Korean government has taken a cautious stance on whether the vessel was directly attacked.
“There is no flooding or loss of stability of the vessel,” National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said in a press briefing on Wednesday. “An investigation team will be dispatched to assess the situation on site.”
Although U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his social media that “Iran has taken some shots at [...] a South Korean Cargo Ship,” Korean authorities and HMM have refrained from assigning blame to a specific nation in the absence of clear evidence.
Headquarters of Korean shipper HMM in western Seoul on May 6 [NEWS1]
A full investigation is expected to begin once the vessel arrives at a seaport in Dubai. Investigators from the Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal, experts from the Korean Register and fire authorities plan to closely examine the hull and engine room.
“Once the probe begins, it will be determined fairly quickly whether the incident was caused by an external force or an internal issue,” Jeon said.
All 24 crew members on board, including six Korean nationals, were unharmed.
The vessel is now being towed to Dubai, where authorities will begin a formal investigation and carry out repairs upon its arrival.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
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