Now, ship inspections are conducted in non-face-to-face.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries shall expand the inspection of remote vessels. (Photo; Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries)

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that it will expand the items of legal ship inspection that can be remote ship inspection in order to solve the difficulties of national vessels that are difficult to receive legal ship inspection within the fixed period due to the re-proliferation of Corona 19 from August 24 (Mon).

A remote ship inspection is an inspection method that confirms the status of the ship and the status of the implementation of various standards using indirect means such as documents, photographs, and video calls without the ship inspector directly entering the site.

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries has introduced a remote ship inspection system since the end of March, when national vessels that have not undergone statutory ship inspections within the fixed period due to Corona 19, have been experiencing difficulties in operating, and have been temporarily recognizing remote ship inspections only for temporary inspection items that do not interfere with safe operation such as institutional continuous inspections. By the end of July, 38 outbound cargo ships that did not enter the domestic port were remotely inspected, and inspections were conducted without any hitches through telephone interviews, photos, videos, and records.

After the prolonged Corona 19 incident, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries revised the "Ship Inspection Guidelines by Remote Method" to further expand the types of inspections that can be subject to remote ship inspections.

The newly added inspections include three kinds of temporary inspections for the ship's rendition, temporary inspections for temporary changes of the maximum number of passengers, and double-loaded waterline inspections.

Such measures will continue until the Corona 19 situation is stabilized and the formal ship inspection can be carried out regularly without any problems.

Meanwhile, major shipping countries such as Australia, Singapore, and Panama, as well as Korea, are gradually introducing ship inspections by remote method due to the influence of Corona 19, and international institutionalization work through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is expected to begin soon.

“The remote ship inspection will be conducted selectively on items that do not interfere with ship safety operations, and the scope will be further expanded after verifying its effectiveness,” said Kim Min-jong, director of the Maritime Safety Bureau at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. “We will also develop standard guidelines for remote ship inspections so that Korea can take the lead in international standardization work centered on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in the future.”