BELIZE: SHIP REGISTRY RESPONSE TO CURTAILING THE

S E C R E T BELIZE 000543 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CEN - JASON MACK ISN/CPI - ANTHONY RUGGIERO E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2016 TAGS: PARM PREL KN KNNP MNUC EWWT PHSA BH SUBJECT: BELIZE: SHIP REGISTRY RESPONSE TO CURTAILING THE USE OF NORTH KOREAN FLAGS OF CONVENIENCE REF: STATE 50422 Classified By: CDA Lloyd W. Moss for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (S) Following the demarche of March 30, the MFA referred questions (reftel) to the Belizean ship registry company, IMMARBE (International Merchant Marine Registry of Belize), which has provided post a copy of its reply to the MFA: BEGIN TEXT -------------- We refer to your fax transmission dated 11 April 2006 under reference FA/PRSA/10/06(138) to which you attached a communication addressed to you from the Embassy of the United States of America dated 4 April 2006. In this regard, we refer to their comment: "We understand that nationals of Belize or entities organized under the laws of and with their principal place of business in/operating out of Belize own, lease or operate some North Korean-flagged ships; according to our information, the number may be fewer than three." Consequently, we have carried out a search in our Ship Registry in order to identify any Belize owned or registered vessels which have been bareboat chartered-out to North Korea and registered under their flag. The result of our search showed that there are no such vessels in our Registry. We also conducted a search for North Korean owned vessels which are registered in Belize and flying our flag. We have identified two such vessels: ¶1. The m/v "San Tong 5", IMO Number 7929774 which is owned by Korea Sinhung Trading Corp., whose address is at No. 468 Dong 13, Powerful Horse Street, Chongjin City, Xianjin North Road, D.P.R. Korea and bareboat chartered out by Hong Kong Santong Marine Shipping Co., Limited whose address is at Flat/Rm 2619. Tower 1 Millenium City One 388, Kwun Tong Rd KL. Hong Kong. The latter registered this vessel at IMMARBE and it is flying the Belize flag since 6 July 2004. ¶2. The m/v "Best Line", IMO Number 8620478 which is owned by Korea Dachung Transportation and Trading Company whose address is at Ansan 1 Dong, Pyongchon Dist., Pyongyang, D.P.R. Korea and registered it at IMMARBE and is flying the Belize flag since 25 August 2003. For your guidance, we have issued Prohibition from Sailing Notices to both these vessels, to the former on 1 December 2005 and to the latter on 25 January 2006 pending satisfactory completion of overdue surveys. At the same time, we wish to inform you that neither of these vessels has any history of being engaged in any illegal activities whilst in our Registry nor have we received any complaint from any third party concerning their operation. We note that the United States Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control will soon publish a regulatory change prohibiting U.S. persons from owning, leasing, operating or insuring any vessel flagged by North Korea. We look forward to being informed as to whether or not the Government of Belize will accede to the request from the United States in changing the existing regulations to make it illegal for Belizean nationals or companies to use the North Korean flag. Trusting that the above information satisfies the enquiry from the Embassy of the United States of America. With kind regards, /s/ Angelo Mouzouropoulos FICS, FCI Arb., Director General /s/ Annette Garel (Mrs),Deputy Registrar, IMMARBE Head Office END TEXT. MOSS