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N. Korea-Bound Ship With 'Military Cargo' Detained By Panama

Posted by timothy on from the no-crisis-if-the-missiles-are-moving-that-direction dept.

HonorPoncaCityDotCom writes "BBC reports that a North Korean-flagged ship carrying suspected 'sophisticated missile equipment' bound from Cuba to North Korea has been stopped near Manzanillo on the Atlantic side of the canal. President Ricardo Martinelli said the authorities were checking the ship for drugs when they found the suspected weapons in containers of brown sugar. Experts believe the communist state is working towards developing a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a long-range missile. Under UN sanctions, North Korea is banned from weapons exports and the import of all but small arms. The 35-member crew have been detained, including the captain who the Panamanian president said tried to kill himself during the search. Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said the ship 'aroused suspicion by the violent reaction of the captain and the crew.' Martinelli also published a photograph that appeared to show two large green containers, adding that the arms shipment had been uncovered 'in containers underneath a cargo of sugar.'" Also at the New York Times.

4 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Blowing up like ... by gl4ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

    i found it more interesting that somehow panama has a say in if cuba wants to ship "drugs"(what panama defines as drugs) to north korea. since that's what they boarded the ship for, supposedly.

    (imho cuba and north korea should be able to trade whatever the fuck they want.. sure, more countries might embargo cuba for that but still, it's their choice)

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  2. Re:Blowing up like ... by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's no different than the US having jurisdiction over shipments on US interstates between Mexico and Canada. What, did you think every cargo vehicle passing through got automatic diplomatic immunity?

  3. What about the clever ships? by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I mean, what about the ships clever enough to *not* take the Panama Canal - and follow the longer path? IOT, how many ships did we miss and How close NK is to having a working nuke?

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    1. Re:What about the clever ships? by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I mean, what about the ships clever enough to *not* take the Panama Canal - and follow the longer path? IOT, how many ships did we miss and How close NK is to having a working nuke?

      I'll speculate here. A Hong Kong based company won a 25 year contract (still in force as far as I know) to mange container operations in the canal, so I'm guessing that the boat and its North Korean masters probably assumed basically China (let's be realistic here - Hong Kong does what China wants) was running the show there and a North Korean boat would be given a nod and a wink in terms of its cargo inspection. It could also be that the boat captain took this on himself to shorten the journey making the assumption that I previously mentioned and this was something he did on his own, so he tried to kill himself when it became clear that his cargo was going to be found. Remember that although Cuba seems to have violated the UN agreement that nothing at all will be done to them in punishment.