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A number of regional port state control (PSC) organizations exist around the world designed to promote maritime safety through the elimination of sub-standard shipping, the safeguarding of working and living conditions and the protection of the marine environment. The Tokyo MOU, consisting of 19 national member authorities in the Asia-Pacific region is the most relevant to North Korea.
One of the things that the MOU does is produce a scorecard rating the safety of individual ships, and hence the fleets of any particular commercial carrier or country. A black-grey-white classification system for national fleet performance is then produced annually by taking account of the inspection and detention history over the preceding three calendar years.
In the most recent ratings, North Korea lands on the black list, with the fifth worst record of 64 countries ranked, besting only Sierra Leone, landlocked Mongolia, Tanzania, and Papua New Guinea. And what country has the best record? South Korea.
A comparison of the rates of detention between the two Koreas is instructive. (Infractions in ascending order of severity are deficiencies that can be rectified within 14 days; deficiencies can be rectified when the ship arrives at the next port; deficiencies that must be rectified before the ship can depart the port; and detention of the ship.) During the period 2012-14, North Korean vessels were inspected 630 times, resulting in 104 detentions: a whopping detention rate of nearly 17 percent. By comparison, South Korean ships were inspected 4,162 times with only 20 detentions: a detention rate of less than one-half of one percent.
North Korea has an aging fleet (although it does retain some indigenous shipbuilding capacity and hence the ability to produce new more seaworthy vessels). And it has a terrible reputation for abusive treatment of its crews.
In the most recent ratings, North Korea lands on the black list, with the fifth worst record of 64 countries ranked, besting only Sierra Leone, landlocked Mongolia, Tanzania, and Papua New Guinea. And what country has the best record? South Korea.
Most immediately, landing on the blacklist should result in special targeting and enforcement procedures by port authorities. Such heightened scrutiny presumably creates difficulties for North Korean shipping operations for the reasons noted above. And in the context of a tightening sanctions environment, the more intensive inspections are likely to impede sanctions-busting by North Korean vessels. This development in turn will push North Korea towards the use of vessels flying under better rated flags of convenience such as the Marshall Islands, but this is no panacea. Those countries are subject to diplomatic pressure from the United States and others to turn away the North Koreans, as well as commercial pressures from skeptical insurers.
In short, years of operating substandard vessels and engaging in abusive labor practices are catching up with North Korea, precisely at a time when its military provocations are subjecting the country to ever more scrutiny.
