The Supplementary Fund Regime And Korea’s Past Strategy - After the Hebei Spirit Incident -

The Hebei Spirit incident made the Korean government reflect on its strategy in light of Korea’s participation in the Supplementary Fund Regime. The Korean government could have ratified the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol, and thus could have enjoyed the benefits of compensation in the event of an oil pollution disaster. Why did the Korean government fail to ratify the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol? What was Korea’s strategyat the time? This paper starts with those questions. The basic purpose of this paper is to look back Korea’s strategy regarding the Supplementary Fund Regime, and reaffirm the necessity of ratification of the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol. Towards this end, this paper will address as follows: section(Ⅱ) explains the history of IOPC Fund Regimes, section(Ⅲ²) deals with the main contents of the 2003 Supplementary Fund Protocol, section(Ⅳ) analyzes the past Korea’s analysis and strategy toward the Supplementary Fund Regime, and section(Ⅴ) addresses the Hebei Spirit case and the critical review of past Korea’sstrategy. The remaining questions after ratification will be shown up finally in section(Ⅵ).