South Korea is treating Iran as the most likely culprit behind the May 4 attack on the HMM Namu, a Panama-flagged cargo vessel operated by South Korean shipping firm HMM Co., after investigators determined that two unidentified airborne objects struck the ship in the Strait of Hormuz (the narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula that carries roughly a fifth of global oil trade), leaving a seven-metre rupture in the hull and destroying the engine room. A senior government official said a non-Iranian actor was unlikely to be responsible, noting the absence of pirates in the area, while Foreign Minister Cho Hyun announced that an additional government-level probe would be conducted and that Seoul would pursue diplomatic responses, stressing that attacks on civilian vessels "can never be justified or tolerated." To support the inquiry, South Korea dispatched a 10-member technical analysis team to Dubai — where the damaged vessel has been towed — to conduct on-site examination of the hull, with engine debris also expected to be returned to Korea for parallel analysis.