The respected General
"The State's institutional and legal conditions and environment relating to economic affairs should be improved and iron discipline established so that economic organs and enterprises give priority to the national interests and the promotion of the people's wellbeing and observe law and order strictly."
The DPR Korea has been steadily improving the institutional and legal conditions and environments related to economic affairs and ensuring that the disputes arising in the external economic relations are solved according to the strictly established laws and regulations. In particular, it is set as a basic principle to ensure scientific accuracy, objectivity, impartiality and promptness in resolving external economic disputes, which contributes to further improvement of the system for enforcement and revoke of the external economic arbitral awards.
The enforcement and revoke of arbitral awards is the final process for settlement of the external economic disputes through arbitration, which is a very important legal issue for its perfect settlement and legal interests of each party.
The law regulating directly the enforcement and revoke of external economic arbitral awards in the DPR Korea is "Arbitration Act on External Economic Arbitral Awards of DPR Korea" adopted on July 21st, Juche 88(1999) as 875th decree of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly(amended and supplemented on October 22nd, Juche 109(2020) as 367th decree). This law defines various legal issues related to the enforcement and revoke of external economic arbitral awards clearly.
Firstly, it has legal requirements for enforcement of arbitral awards.
Enforcement of awards involves two procedures; a voluntary enforcement procedure in which a party concerned spontaneously the arbitral awards made by the arbitral tribunal and a litigious one that enforces a party concerned to implement it according to the same procedure by the judgment of the tribunal in case the party concerned refuses to do it.
Here is a legal requirement for voluntary enforcement of the responsible party.
The party who is responsible for the fulfillment of the awards must correctly execute it in time as stated in the arbitral awards and, if there is no time specified, he should do that immediately after he accepts it.
Here is also a legal requirement for mandatory enforcement by a court or an institution concerned.
If a party refuses to fulfil the awards voluntarily or fails to fulfil them honestly, the other party may ask for the enforcement of the awards to a court or an institution concerned. If the responsible party fails to fulfil the obligations stated in the arbitral awards in time or fails to fulfil them honestly, the other party may bring it to a court or an institution concerned directly or through the arbitration committee.
The court or the institution concerned should examine the application within 30 days after the receipt of the application and the awards, and execute it by judgment and decision. When a party refuses to perform the awards, the following measures may be taken; freezing of its bank account, discontinuation of exports and imports, seizure or confiscation of its property, fines, cessation of business, prohibition of exit and entry and so on. If its property is in a foreign country, the application should be sent to a court of the country.
Consolidating the system for enforcement of the arbitral awards is an important factor in guaranteeing the development of international arbitration, so the DPRK has established a strong legal order that the arbitral tribunal has its own independence and impartiality and the rendered awards have to be executed by the judicial organs. And when the arbitral tribunal renders the awards which can prejudice a party's unilateral interests without any justice, its revoke is allowed by law.
Secondly, there is a legal requirement for revoke of awards.
The revoke of awards is an activity of lawsuit law which destroys the effect of the awards in power by the judgment of the court in accordance with an application of one party.
It doesn't mean that a voluntary arbitration agreement of awards between the parties must be fulfilled unconditionally by themselves. This is because in the course of arbitration proceedings, if the arbitral tribunal breaks a procedure or enforces arbitral proceedings even though the arbitral agreement is invalid, its enforcement may cause the violation of the legal rights of either party.
Therefore, in the DPR Korea the law clearly stipulates for the issues related to the revoke of awards including the proposal of opinion for awards and the action of the court.
Here is a legal requirement for submitting the revoke of awards.
The party who is dissatisfied with the awards can ask the court for its revoke under the following facts; the fact that a party concerned was incompetent at the time of making an agreement for arbitration or the arbitration agreement is invalid under the governing law; the fact that a party concerned was unable to make a response because he was not properly informed of the appointment of an arbitrator or the arbitration procedures or for unavoidable reasons; the fact that an award is rendered in respect of a dispute that is not the subject of arbitration agreement, or has gone beyond the limit of arbitration agreement; the fact that the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the arbitration procedures are in violation of the governing law.
Here is a legal requirement for the term of validity of an application for revoke of awards.
The revoke of the awards should be submitted within two months after the parties have received the arbitral written verdict and its amendment, interpretation, and additional arbitral written verdict, and cannot be submitted after the term of validity is expired or the arbitration has been confirmed by the court.
Here is also a legal requirement for the action of the court related to the revoke of the awards.
The court should deal with the revoke application within two months after its receipt; if the revoke application sent by the party is justified, the court may ask the arbitration committee to conduct the arbitration examination again, and may require some necessary measures to remedy the given reasons of the revoke as long as they do not directly affect the awards.
Like this, the DPR Korea clearly stipulates for the enforcement and revoke of the external economic arbitral awards by law to perfect its system to ensure scientific accuracy, objectivity, impartiality and promptness in the settlement of the external economic disputes.
