SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: Choon Won Lee and Dahee Kim, Jipyong LLC
The claim arising out of an employment contract for a seafarer or any employee of the ship shall include indemnities for injuries of crew, in so far as the employment contract provides for such indemnities. Theoretically speaking, liabilities resulting from contracts for chartering a vessel may provide grounds for a maritime lien in so far as such claim falls under one of the above four catego - ries of claims which constitute maritime liens over the vessel, although practically speaking, liabilities resulting from contracts for chartering a vessel may likely not fall under such categories of claims. As discussed in 4.1 Ship Arrests , ship arrests in South Korea are possible, subject to the sat - isfaction of the requirements for each type of ship arrest. Except for ship arrest based on a maritime lien (which can be established only for certain types of claims that are relevant to the underlying vessel, as previously discussed), ship arrests for other types, eg, a pre-judgment attachment or a judicial auction sale based on the mortgage of the vessel, are available for pecuniary claims that are not maritime claims or ship-related claims. 4.3 Liability in Personam for Owners or Demise Charterers As discussed in 4.1 Ship Arrests , ship arrests in South Korea are possible, subject to the satis - faction of the requirements for each type of ship arrest. For (i) a pre-judgment attachment and (ii) a judicial auction sale for enforcement of a claim under the judgment or arbitration award, it would be required that the debtor/respondent be the owner of the ship to be arrested. However, for a judicial auction sale based on a security right, such as a mortgage or maritime
lien, it would be sufficient that the security right had been duly established over the vessel. In particular, in the case of claims that consti - tute maritime liens over a ship (as discussed in 4.2 Maritime Liens ), while generally it would be the ship-owner who is liable for such a claim, it is not necessarily required that the ship-owner be liable. The key point would be the pertinent ship with regard to which the claim has arisen, and a maritime lien would be established over that ship, and that ship would be subject to ship arrest. 4.4 Unpaid Bunkers A bunker supplier can arrest a vessel subject to satisfaction of requirements for each type of ship arrest, as set out in 4.1 Ship Arrests . For a pre-judgment attachment, it is required that the applicant/claimant have a pecuniary claim against the debtor/respondent. This means that when there are different and separate contrac - tual and actual suppliers, unless the actual sup - plier is entitled to raise a claim directly against the debtor/respondent, the actual supplier would not be able to apply for a pre-judgment attachment. Further, it is required that the debt - or/respondent be the owner of the vessel to be arrested. Accordingly, if the debtor/respondent is the charterer of the vessel to be arrested, the bunker supplier would not be able to apply for a pre-judgment attachment. Here, one possibility may be that the charterer has been authorised by the ship-owner to purchase the bunkers in the name of the ship-owner and thus the ship- owner is directly liable to pay the bunkers to the supplier. In such case, the ship-owner would be the debtor/respondent and the bunker sup - plier would be able to apply for a pre-judgment attachment. This said, considering the charter - ing practice, it would not be very common that
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