TAIPEI • A Taiwanese businessman is under investigation on suspicion of selling oil to North Korea in violation of United Nations sanctions, reportedly in connection to a ship seized by South Korea.

Seoul said last week it had detained a Hong Kong-registered ship in November suspected of transferring oil products to a North Korean vessel, contravening bans imposed over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programme.

Prosecutors in the southern city of Kaohsiung, where the man surnamed Chen runs a fishery company, said in a statement yesterday that he had falsely declared a ship he chartered was bound for Hong Kong when it actually sailed into international waters to sell oil.

They did not comment on reports that the businessman's ship was the Lighthouse Winmore, which was impounded in November last year by the South Korean authorities after it allegedly transferred 600 tonnes of oil to a North Korean vessel.

The ship had visited South Korea's port of Yeosu on Oct 11 and loaded up on some 14,000 tonnes of Japanese refined oil before heading towards its purported destination in Taiwan, customs officials have said.

The South Korean authorities said that the vessel, chartered by the Taiwanese firm Billions Bunker Group Corp, made the transfer to the North's Sam Jong 2 in international waters off China before returning to Yeosu.

Chinese-language daily The Liberty Times said Mr Chen sold oil products through "a Chinese middleman" and had told prosecutors he did not know they were bound for a North Korean vessel.

He has been released on bail and barred from leaving the island pending further investigation.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE