South Korea’s foreign ministry has announced that the UN sanctions committee on North Korea has approved the release of two ships detained for illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products to North Korea.

The committee approved to release the Hong Kong-flagged Lighthouse Winmore and South Korean ship P-Pioneer after the South Korean government submitted the request in May under the condition that the operators of the ships promised not to engage in such dealings and submit its shipping course log at the government’s request in future.

Lighthouse Winmore and P-Pioneer have been detained since November 2017 and September 2018.

Currently, another two ships involved in illegal dealings with North Korea, Koti and Talent Ace, are under review by the government.

Last month, South Korea decided to scrap oil tanker Katrin, which was suspected of breaching UN sanctions against North Korea, at the request of the ship’s owner.