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South Korean lawmaker Yoo Ki-june on Tuesday called on the government to take action against a ship suspected of violating United Nations sanctions by transporting coal from North Korea.
The Belize-flagged vessel is apparently at a South Korean port but is scheduled to leave on Wednesday night.
It is claimed the ship arrived in Pohang from Nakhodka in Russia on Saturday along with 5,100 tons of North Korean coal, which would be banned under a UN resolution passed last year in response to Pyongyang's repeated nuclear provocations.
Yoo, a conservative politician, said the South's liberal government "should immediately implement necessary steps under the U.N. sanctions," according to local news agency Yonhap.
North Korea released a South Korean citizen detained in July after crossing the border into the North, the South's Unification Ministry said on Tuesday.The prisoner was a 34-year-old man surnamed Seo who was detained after "illegally" entering North Korea last month, the ministry said.South Korean officials have pressed for the return of six other South Koreans believed to have been held for years in North Korea, and the Unification Ministry said they believed Seo's release is a positive sign.In May, North Korea released three American prisoners in a gesture seen as clearing the way for June's summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.North Korea alarmed by US attitudes but committed to nuclear dealAfter the Americans were released, the United Nations human rights investigator on North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, issued a statement calling for the South Koreans to also be freed.Among them are Christian missionaries Kim Jung-wook, who was arrested in October 2013, and Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-kil, who have been held since 2014, the ministry said.US Secretary of State Pompeo, N Korea minister Ri shake handsThe other three are North Korean defectors who South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said last year were “captured” by the North without specifying where and why. 
North Korea releases South Korean man detained in July
He added that the vessel in question has been to South Korea 20 times since last October.
Following criticism that Seoul might have been turning a blind eye in order to gain political capital with Pyongyang, an official from Seoul's Foreign Ministry revealed this week that nine possible North Korean coal shipments are already being investigated.
The South is obligated to seize and probe any vessel suspected of violating sanctions, while the United States has made it clear it will take a dim view of any nation enabling North Korea to get around denuclearization efforts.
However, Seoul later insisted that the latest Pohang shipment under scrutiny was just Russian coal.
"There has been no confirmation of a violation of the (UN) Security Council resolution in an inspection of the ship by related authorities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kyu-duk said at a news conference.