Despite repeated calls for accountability concerning a number of accidents reported on board South Korean vessels sent for breaking in South Asia, the country’s shipowners continue offloading their end-of-life assets to cash buyers and circumventing international environmental safety stipulations.
According to the Belgian organization NGO Shipbreaking Platform, since 2020, 94 ships owned by South Korean companies were dismantled on the beaches of Bangladesh and India, two countries that have been criticized for the ‘hazardous’ conditions of their shipbreaking (and repair) yards that have, thus far, put numerous workers’ lives at risk, on top of causing “irreversible” environmental damage.