SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Choon Won Lee and Dahee Kim, Jipyong LLC
1.6 Registration of Mortgages Registration of mortgages is maintained and handled by the district courts (and the registra - tion offices subordinate to courts). In order to register a mortgage over a vessel, the applicant is required to submit documents demonstrating (i) details regarding the secured claim, including the amount, the repayment due date, interests, etc (usually the mortgage agree - ment), and (ii) details regarding the debtor (and the ship-owner, if different from the debtor). 1.7 Ship Ownership and Mortgages Registry The legal and administrative registrations of ships are available to the public. However, a per - son who applies for a copy of the registry record is required to confirm certain details of the vessel – usually, it is possible to obtain a copy of the registry record by confirming (i) the name and (ii) the port of registry of the vessel. 2. Marine Casualties and Owners’ Liability 2.1 International Conventions: Pollution and Wreck Removal As regards pollution, South Korea is a member state of the International Convention on Civil Lia - bility for Oil Pollution Damage (CLC, 1969) and its 1992 Protocol, as well as the International Convention on the Establishment of an Interna - tional Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage (FUND, 1971) and its 1992 and 2003 Protocols. South Korea is also a member state of the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage. There are also domestic laws (for example, the Compensa - tion for Oil Pollution Damage Guarantee Act of Korea) reflecting these conventions.
The Ship Act of Korea stipulates provisions on administrative registration, while the Ship Reg - istry Act of Korea stipulates provisions on legal registration. 1.4 Requirements for Ownership of Vessels In principle, under the Ship Act of Korea, only a vessel owned by (i) South Korean citizens (ie, South Korean individuals or companies incorpo - rated in accordance with South Korean law), or (ii) companies whose principal office is located in South Korea and all of whose representa - tives (ie, the CEO, the president, the managing director, etc) are South Korean citizens, may be registered in South Korea as a “Korean vessel”. Further, under the International Ship Registration Act of Korea, a vessel which is owned by a ship - ping company that has registered its shipping business in South Korea or is under a bareboat- charter hire purchase (BBCHP) to a Korean ship - ping company to be South Korean-flagged can be registered in South Korea as an “international vessel”. Under the Ship Registry Act of Korea, it is pos - sible to register a mortgage over a vessel that is still under construction. However, registering the vessel’s ownership is only possible upon construction. 1.5 Temporary Registration of Vessels Temporary registration and dual registration are not permitted in South Korea. Issuance of a tem - porary nationality certificate is possible when the ship-owner has acquired the ownership of the vessel abroad, and thus it may take some time to achieve permanent registration in Korea.
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