Vessels which violate the current UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) on trading with North Korea will not be registered with the Palau International Ship Registry (PISR), as it became the latest registry to have joined a relevant MoU between Liberia, Marshall Islands and Panama, on 21 January 2020.
This MoU offers collaboration between the four major ship registries on sharing information when a flag registry de-registers or is in process of de-registering, or when it denies registration of a vessel due to engagement in a sanctionable activity.
Under the MoU, all four registries will now promptly notify other flags to ensure questionable vessels are not registered in line with the UNSCR regulations.
As informed, the move by Palau follows several previous measures to ensure the due diligence in screening vessels before they are registered under the Palau flag.
These measures include the PurpleTRAC sanction compliance platform, monitoring of AIS transmissions and LRIT ship position tracking.
Palau recognizes the importance of ship registries, ship owners and managers working together to raise awareness of North Korea’s illicit shipping practices and to enforce UNSCRs to increase regional and global security. We have vessels registered across the globe and our diligence and our personnel working for the registry in 43 countries means we can support and monitor the vessels registered with us. We are fully supportive of the need to maintain law and order on the seas and we are fully behind this initiative as one of the world’s leading ship registries,
…Panos Kirnidis, CEO of PISR, noted.
