Cruise Companies Cancel Calls in South Korea

RCL Amid the recent developments in South Korea, cruise giant Royal Caribbean has decided to cancel calls at the countrys ports on its China-based voyages, the company said in an alert on its Chinese site. The calls are related to the itineraries of the Quantum of the Seas, Mariner of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas up to June, 2017 with calls in Busan, Jeju and Seoul, Korea replaced by those in Japan. In addition, Carnivals Costa Cruises is cited by Reuters as saying that it would remove calls to South Korean ports for our upcoming cruises home ported out of China, replacing them with cruising at sea or calls to destinations in Japan.   The move was triggered by South Koreas deployment of Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile system in cooperation with the United States, which Beijing believes is targeted against China, and not as a means of keeping nuclear threats from North Korea at bay. World Maritime News Staff