On 20 November, the Houthis released three vessels it had seized two days before at Uqban island, few miles off the Yemeni coast, according to South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and Houthi military sources. The three vessels, two Korean and one Saudi, were captured after having entered Yemeni waters due to bad weather conditions. Houthi military sources told Reuters that “the three ships were released after the necessary legal measures”, as well as the crew. The release was made possible due to “friendly ties between Seoul and Sanaa”, wrote on Twitter Hussein al-Azzi, the Houthi deputy foreign minister. Saudi Arabia has labelled the incident as “terrorist attack”, accusing the Houthis of posing a threat to world trade and the freedom of international navigation. The incident takes place amid growing tension in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Despite the Houthis have been expelled from most of Yemen’s coast during the ongoing conflict, they still hold Hodeidah, which is the country’s biggest port in the Red Sea.