Could Amver help evacuate people from Korea?

Over on the Naval Institute Blog  Christopher Albon and Craig Hooper  raised the question on how to evacuate Americans from South Korea if tensions increased and it became necessary to quickly get people out of the region.  Mention was made of the challenges involved in the evacuation of people from Beirut in 2006. Their entire article is available on the Atlantic.

Below is a piece that appeared in the Summer 2006 edition of the Amver Bulletin (link to pdf).  It discusses the use of an Amver ship to evacuate people from Beirut. 

On July 18, 2006 the Swedish Government charted the Amver participant M/V HUAL TRANSPORTER to assist in the evacuation of approximately 1,000 people from the Port of Beirut.
Of the 1,000 people aboard, almost 200 were Americans. This use of commercial ships to evacuate large numbers of people in crisis should serve as a reminder of the importance of both commercial shipping and Amver. The Amver database was not used to query available ships in the area. It is, however, reassuring to know Amver vessels are available almost everywhere in the world, able to assist when necessary. Hoegh shipping demonstrated that commercial vessels are, sometimes, better suited than military vessels for these types of situations.  Hoegh shipping is commended for their willingness to assist those in distress.

Is the use of Amver to evacuate a large number of people from a port out of the question?  The Coast Guard could run an Amver Surface Picture (SURPIC) and identify commercial ships near various ports and request they assist in an evacuation.  The Coast Guard could also work with the Maritime Administration, Military Sealift Command, or the State Department to contract with vessels to assist as necessary.

What are your thoughts on large scale evacuations?

Photo credit: Hoegh Shipping