Director’s visit to Republic of Korea

The Director and Head of Claims, Mrs Liliana Monsalve, travelled to Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 6 October 2015 to meet with representatives of the Ministry of Fisheries and the 1992 Fund’s lawyers to discuss matters relating to the Hebei Spirit incident. Several meetings were held over the three days spent in Seoul, during which discussions focussed on the compensation paid by the 1992 Fund to the Korean Government and the question of whether the 1992 Fund could increase the level of payments, which was currently set at 35% of the assessed amount. The parties also discussed the continued importance of the careful handling of the vast amount of data relating to the 128 000 claims submitted.
During the visit, the Director and Mrs Monsalve were invited to meet with the Vice-Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Mr Young-Suk Kim. They were joined at that meeting by the Chairman of the Supplementary Fund Assembly, Mr Sung-Bum Kim and the Director and Deputy Director of the Hebei Spirit Incident Compensation Bureau, Mr Young-Hoon Kim and Mr Jun-Ok Kim. The Director took the opportunity to express his appreciation for the cooperation and proactive approach of the Korean Government in respect of this incident. He emphasised that the Hebei Spirit case had represented the first of its kind in terms of sheer volume of claims and information submitted. He pointed out that, although it had been eight years since the incident, many cases involving significantly fewer claims had resulted in outstanding claims for longer and that the expeditious handling of so many claims by the Hebei Spirit Compensation Bureau had been remarkable in comparison.
The subject of the level of payments is set to be reviewed at the next session of the Executive Committee which will take place during the week of 19 October 2015. Documents on the subject are available via the Document Services section.