South Korean container ship to test Arctic route to Europe amid Western concern

SEOUL – South Korea will flag off on Aug 22 a container ship bound for Europe via the Arctic, testing whether a route opened by melting sea ice can be commercially viable, but risking friction with Western allies, as the voyage requires Russian cooperation.

If successful, the trip would be South Korea’s first such commercial voyage to Europe via the Arctic, placing it, with China and Russia, among the few countries whose shipping firms have tested or run cargo services along the route.

Sailing north from the port of Busan, the PanStar Acro will make stops at Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Poland’s Gdansk before returning, in a journey expected to take 40 to 45 days, its operator PanStar said.

“Around September, when this voyage will mainly take place, Arctic sea ice is at its lowest level of the year, making safer navigation possible,” an official of the group said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

President Lee Jae Myung has made Arctic shipping a priority, with officials saying it could help transform the south-eastern port of Busan into a global maritime hub and position the Arctic as a regular trade route by 2030.

Unhappiness over plan

Western diplomats, however, are unhappy with the plan, as it has required Seoul to consult Russia and seek permits for the ship’s voyage.

“We want to isolate Russia, we don’t want engagement with Russia,” said one European diplomat, citing Russia’s war in Ukraine, and adding that the concerns had been voiced to South Korean officials.

Arctic shipping experts also said South Korea could be at risk of breaching sanctions if the ship sought Russia’s help to tackle problems encountered along the route, such as getting stuck in ice.

South Korea’s Oceans Ministry and Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Route more feasible now

The faster melting of Arctic sea ice, attributed to global warming, has made it more feasible this summer to try out the Northern Sea Route (NSR), as it is known.

As traffic on the route grows, Norwegian tracking foundation Centre for High North Logistics said 88 vessels made 103 transits through the NSR in 2025, up from 97 in 2024 and 43 in 2022, chiefly from nations such as Russia and China.

South Korea’s Oceans Ministry said the Arctic route could shorten voyages by up to 35 per cent compared with the traditional Suez Canal route, and require less fuel. But commercial feasibility could be harder to assess.

Unit transport costs for the Arctic route are swelled by factors such as vessel size limits and insurance costs, former naval officer Hye-won Choi said in a study published in 2025 in the journal Ocean Policy Research.

“We cannot use the NSR year round,” he told Reuters, adding that the route is navigable by container vessels only during the three summer months when the ice melts.

PanStar, picked in a government-backed tender for the pilot voyage, bought a 2,700 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container ship from HMM that it is modifying for polar navigation, with a crew of 20 South Koreans and Indonesians.

The company told Reuters that it is seeking at least 1,300 TEU of cargo such as automobile parts, food and cosmetics, along with shipments from China and Japan, with clients from the latter expressing interest.

First-mover advantage

China is already trying to secure first-mover advantage on the route, making a South Korean voyage more urgent, the PanStar official said. “Korea must begin accumulating operating experience and data that it has not had until now, if the national goal of commercial scheduled service by 2030 is to be achievable.”

Chinese container company Sea Legend Shipping ​plans to launch the first regular container service to Europe via the NSR, the route’s Russian operator says. REUTERS