After the foundering of the Titanic, matters regarding navigational safety began to emerge, followed by the signing of the SOLAS Agreement. Recently, subsidiary agreements on the security against terrorism have also been seen around the 9․
11 incident. Such agreements had begun to encourage international interests concerning the safety and security related matters. As result, most of the countries started forcing themselves to carry out these agreements immediately.
For South Korea, this was not a task too difficult to execute since the nation had already been putting major efforts into reinforcing security measures on important national facilities along with establish laws, due to the special militant environment on the Korean Peninsula between the two Koreas. However, not all laws and reinforcements were in harmony, resulting in the need for further institutional adjustments in order for the different agencies and departments to react appropriately to the matters that required coherent and integrated efforts against the Threat to Port security, in particular.
The most critical issue in this matter would be the assignment of the full authority of the Port security to a single agent, the Korea Maritime and Port Administration (KMPA). In line with this, the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) and the regional MPAs should newly establish cells or organizations that are that are solely designated to the Port security while introducing an integrated Port security system to replace the individual efforts on each separate port of responsibility, for enhanced efficiency. This will ideally be supported by additional infra-structure or equipments including infra-red sensors, CCTVs, and automatic alarms interlocked to provide the most effective security measures, backed up by adequate information sharing mechanism with other relevant agencies, such as the Digital Message Handling System (DMHS)
Additionally, in consideration of the recent and future redevelopments and the current tendency of the opening of the ports, adequate training for the employees and the consistent mutual international cooperation will be vital in contributing to achieving the ultimate objective of the 'Perfect Port Security'