There were times in our national history when the people of Korea wielded a dominant power over the seas surrounding Korea owing to such great men as Chang Bo-Go of the Silla Dynasty and Admiral Yi of the Yi Dynasty. Under the inflence of Confucian thought and culture from the chinese continent, however, our people failed to think much of the importance of maritime industry as a whole.

In the firm belief that one who rules the sea rules the world, we have extended ourselves painstakingly for the promotion of maritime transportation since the early 1970's. As a result, we became one of the semi-advanced shipping countries of the world by the end of 1977, boasting 3,500,000 tons in gross tonnage of vessels and earning as much as $600 million from maritime transportation.