Security

Samho Shipping has stated that it is in the process of negotiations with the Somali pirates who seized the company's VLCC Samho Dream in April this year.

The Connecticut Maritime Association held an informative discussion about anti-piracy regulations, led by guest speaker James Bergeron, political advisor at Striking Force NATO.

South Korea, supported by the United States, has limited trade with North Korea in response to the country's sinking of one of South Korea's warships earlier this year.

The United States Coast Guard, under the Maritime and Security Act of 2002 (MTSA) has issued an advisory evaluating which ports around the world are not meeting anti-terrorism standards, and the organization may prohibit vessel traveling from these ports from entering US harbors. The Official Release outlines which ports are affected and what actions maritime companies need to take if they are traveling to the ports in question before visiting the United States.

Last month, President Obama issued an Executive Order regarding recent conflicts in Somalia. As the ISRR wrote when the order was first released, it is unclear what Obama's intentions were in releasing it, particularly with regards to ransom payments to Somali pirates.

Now the MTI Network, the leading crisis media response firm, has published the following release in response to the order:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The MV Talca"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="384" caption="Attendees at the Jamaica-Canada Maritime Security Policy Workshop. "][/caption]

Somali pirates aboard the South Korean Samho Dream threatened to explode the vessel last week unless they received ransom money, however, no new developments have occurred since.

The ISRR's latest post addressed Iran's evasion of US sanctions through renaming its vessels and transferring their ownership to other countries. We thank the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control for revealing Iran's actions.

Iran has evaded US sanctions by renaming its vessels and transferring their ownership to other countries.