North Korea Applies for Ship Owners Liability Insurance

On Wednesday around 9:00 a.m., the North Korean passenger ship “Mangyongbong 92” arrived in Japan’s Niigata port in more than five months after its departure.

The Mangyongbong ship, which is the only non-regular liner between North Korea and Japan, had 24 passengers on board along with a cargo exceeding 50 tons.

The Mangyongbong ship was unable to enter the port after the Japanese government announced that all ships over 100 tons were required to apply for Protection and Indemnity Insurance (PI insurance) in case of a crude oil leak accident. Since the Mangyongbong ship recently finished the insurance admission procedure, she is now able to enter Japanese ports. She is expected to make five more entries to the port until June.

Japan’s PI insurance requirement has been interpreted as a sanction measure against North Korea, considering that so far North Korean ships have been entering Japan without any requirements of responsibility insurance admission.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com