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Korean Register HQ raided as Stellar Daisy investigation heats up

The Busan headquarters of class society Korean Register (KR) were raided yesterday in the ongoing investigation into the sinking of the elderly Stellar Daisy converted ore carrier.

Busan coast guard officials took away documents related to the surveys and inspection of the Polaris-owned vessel, KR officials told Splash today.

The ship sank at the end of March in the South Atlantic with just two of the 24 crew surviving. An investigation by the ship’s registry, the Marshall Islands, is ongoing while Korean authorities have also raided Polaris’s office recently.

Polaris took much flak in the wake of the sinking as a number of other elderly converted ore carriers suffered faults that needed urgent fixing.

The Korean class society has been in the local spotlight a great deal of late. Not only did it class the Stellar Daisy, it also classed the Sewol, a ferry which sank in Korean waters in 2014 with the loss of 297 lives.

Anxious to put its past behind it, KR this month unveiled a new logo, something it said was designed to mark the organisation’s “renewed outward-facing international approach and its desire to add greater value to its customers’ businesses”.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

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