The maximum fine imposed on Chinese fishing boats engaged in illegal operations was raised from 3 billion won to 15 billion won.
According to the Korea Coast Guard on the 14th, the revised Economic Exclusive Zone Fisheries Sovereignty Act, which raises fines for illegal Chinese fishing boats, took effect on the 12th.
The standard for imposing collateral deposits for acts of manipulating Automatic Identification System (AIS) data or leaving it broken to conceal location information was also newly established in the revised law.
Acts of intentionally underreporting or concealing catches, such as installing secret fish holds for the purpose of overfishing, will also be subject to aggravated punishment.
The collateral deposit for releasing fishing boats and crew before trial was also raised to a maximum of 15 billion won. Until then, collateral deposits had been imposed on a sliding scale between 150 million and 300 million won depending on the size of the boat.
The move to raise fines and collateral deposits was pushed quickly after President Lee Jae-myung called for a strong response to illegal operations by Chinese fishing boats.
At a Korea Coast Guard briefing in Dec. last year, the president said, "If 10 boats come in and one is caught, and the 10 chip in to pay the fine, it becomes very difficult to respond systematically," adding, "We need to raise fines to the point that even pooling money from 10 boats would be burdensome, so we can respond forcefully."