(Record No.9)
RECORD OF PROCEEDING OF THE COMMITTEE ON VESSELS
The 15th meeting of the "Committee on Vessels" was held on December 4, 1951 at the Japanese Ministry of Transportation.
With regard to the 14 questions made by the Japanese Committee member at the proceeding meeting, the Korean Committee member stated that they would present answers insofar as return of vessels under agenda (b) were concerned. The answers given by the Korean side are as follow:
(1) Vessels are included in the category of the "any other property" of the Article 2 of the "Korean Vesting Decree", and thus were vested in the U.S. Military Government of Korea.
(2) All vested property was transfored to the Government of Republic of Korea under the terms of the "Initial Financial and Property Settlement between the Republic of Korea and the United States". As answered in Questions 1, vessels are included in the vested property, and therefore the vested vessels were transfored to the Korean Government under the same Settlement.
(3) Korean waters means Korean territorial waters.
(4) The words "within the jurisdiction of this command" means the area of the Korean Peninsula south of the 38 Degree North Latitute and the subordinate islands of this area and their adjacent territorial waters.
(5) The words "locate" in the Korean Vesting Decree applies in several ways. Applied to agenda (b) it means that vessels were actually located in Korean territorial waters.
(6) There is some doubt as to the choice of the words "physically located". We take them to mean, as applied to agenda (b), the fact that the vessels were actually located in Korean territorial waters.
(7) The words "Japanese as of 9 August 1945" means persons who had Japanese nationality by virtue of the Japanese Nationality Law effective as of that date, and those juridical persons who had head offices in Japan. Those juridical persons with their head offices in Korea whether partly or wholely owned by Japanese are Korean juridical persons and not Japanese juridical persons.
(8) The words "on or since August 9, 1945" mean "from the day of 9 August 1945 and during the term of validity of the Korean Vesting Decree". According to the Article 100 of the Korean Constitution, it is still in effect.
(9) & (10) Questions 9 and 10 are deemed domestic matters of Korea, and therefore, the Korean side do not see the necessity of answering to them.
(11) Definition of vessels in agenda (b) is taken to mean prevailing conception of vessel.
(12) From December 6, 1945 to the present.
(13) Time will be required for preparation of such a list, and the Korean side do not see the necessity of preparing the list.
(14) The basis is that vessels are a kind of property, and that all Japan and Japanese property located in Korea was vested under the Korean Vesting Decree.
Following to the above answers, some additional questions and answers were made for further clarification of the Korean answers.
It was agreed upon that the Committee will continue discussion on agenda (a) from the next meeting for its concrete and final settlement, and that the members of both sides will do their utmost for complete solution of the problems of "Return of Vessels" pending between Japan and Korea by 20th of December 1951.
Japan:
N. Kameyama
Korea:
Duck C. Moon