90 North Korean Ships Granted Entry To Japan

Ninety North Korean vessels were granted certificates to enter Japanese ports in the eight months since a new law that bans entry of any ship without insurance took effect, according to Construction and Transport Ministry statistics.The law on liability for oil pollution damage, which came into force on March 1, requires vessels of 100 tons or larger to be insured before docking in Japan. The law had been viewed as a de facto economic sanction, as it was believed that most North Korean vessels would not fulfill the law's requirements and therefore would be unable to dock in Japan. But some Liberal Democratic Party members and others recently said more North Korean vessels had insurance coverage than they had expected.