Shipping 2025

SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Choon Won Lee and Dahee Kim, Jipyong LLC

1. Maritime and Shipping Legislation and Regulation 1.1 Domestic Laws Establishing the Authorities of the Maritime and Shipping Courts Under the South Korean legal system, there are no separate maritime and shipping specialised courts. It may be noted that there are a number of maritime lawyers and scholars who have been running a campaign for maritime-specialised courts in South Korea, which has been noted by the congress and the courts. That said, as of January 2025, there are no maritime courts in South Korea. Instead, subject to the nature of the claim, the parties may file suit before the pertinent dis - trict court that has jurisdiction over the under - lying matter. In some district courts, notably in the Seoul Central District Court and the Busan District Court, there are tribunals specialised in maritime and shipping matters. Cargo claims (such as loss, damage and delay) and casualty claims (such as grounding, colli - sion, allision, fire, and personal injury during carriage or at the port) are the most common maritime and shipping claims in South Korea. The district court that has jurisdiction over the underlying matter (eg, over the parties’ address - es or over the place of the incident) would be the respective competent court. 1.2 Port State Control South Korea is a signatory member state of various international conventions that apply to marine casualties (including seafarers’ casu - alties) and pollution, such as the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1974 (SOLAS), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 (MAR -

POL), the International Convention on Stand - ards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978 (STCW), and the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006. Further, South Korea has enacted domestic legislation reflecting the contents of those international conventions, such as the Ship Safety Act, the Maritime Safety Act, the Marine Environment Management Act and the Seafarers Act, among others. In line with international conventions and under domestic acts, the Ministry of Ocean and Fisher - ies (MOF) of Korea, and the regional offices and port authorities subordinate to the MOF, watch over the vessels that enter into South Korea and investigate whether those vessels are in com - pliance with the international standards. If non- compliance is found, the MOF may order that the non-compliance be corrected, and if that correction is not made in time, the MOF may impose certain restraints/punishments, includ - ing detention of the vessel until correction of the non-compliance has been effected. In the case of marine casualties, the MOF may order that relevant response measures be taken, including wreck and bunker removal, and pollution pre - vention. 1.3 Domestic Legislation Applicable to Ship Registration For a vessel to be registered in South Korea, it must be registered under two systems: • administrative registration, which relates to issuance of ship-nationality certificates and is handled by the MOF (and the regional offices and port authorities subordinate to the MOF); and • legal registration, which is handled by the district courts (and the registration offices subordinate to courts).

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