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:

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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