SEOUL - The US Navy said on Thursday it was looking to transport jet fuel from South Korea to Japan, rejecting reports by shipping and energy brokers that the shipment was for the other direction.

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Jeff Davis, a US Navy commander with the 7th Fleet, said the "this RFP (request for proposal) is to move fuel from Korea to Japan, not Japan to Korea".

"Again, this is all routine and totally unrelated to any current events on the Korean peninsula," he said in an email to Reuters.

"Also, it's for 30,000 barrels, not 220,000 barrels as I had stated (on Wednesday)."

Shipbrokers had said the US navy was looking to load in Okinawa, Japan and discharge in Ulsan, South Korea. They said this was rare, with such fuel movements usually going the other way.

They had said the Navy entered the freight spot market this week to charter an oil tanker to move at least 30,000 tonnes of jet fuel, used by the US military to power everything from tanks to fighter planes, between the two Asian countries.