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N. Korea-Bound Ship With 'Military Cargo' Detained By Panama
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.
The sugar was both the cover and the sophisticated missile technology...
Crafty, crafty.
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)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
in the real cuban missile crisis you had russian soldiers manning the missiles that were a few minutes away from washington DC
here the missile can't even reach washington from NK
Maybe it was because the ship was going through the Panama Canal.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
They can but they can not go through Panamanian waters to do so. It probably would have raised suspicions to go around the cape and thus stay in international waters could have just used a bigger ship that would not fit.
No sir I dont like it.
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)
My my how naive you are.
The Panama Canal is for all pratical purposes american territory. There is your answer.
Job well done. Back to the shadows....
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?
The canal has been under the control of the Panamanian government since 1999.
No, no, no. In Soviet Russia, you sneak missiles into Cuba. In non-Soviet era, Cuba sneaks missiles into you!
This is starting to sound like a prison joke.
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?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Cuban airplane bound for Kim Jong's land
Downed in a market-driven US friend
Scarred old pilot knows he's doing all right
'til he's caught by capitalists just around midnight.
Brown sugar! How come you smell so good?
Brown sugar! Just like a missile should.
I am officially gone from
Borgoise individualist filth. "Pyongyang Style" would involve several tens of thousands of carefully drilled elements of the masses performing some sort of mass-gymnastic routine...
In the Cuban missile crisis Russia was delivering missiles TO Cuba. In this case the missiles were being sent to NK FROM Cuba.
i found it more interesting that somehow panama has a say
See, nobody ever reads the ToS for the Panama Canal either.
Remember, next time you want to ship drugs and guns across the globe, GO AROUND THE HORN.
Don't be daring and cheap at the same time.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
In the real Cuban missile crisis you had American soldiers manning missiles that were a few minutes away from Moscow. One country the missiles was in, is called Turkey.
What's good for the goose (Americans putting missiles just over the border from the USSR) should be good for the gander (Russians putting missiles just over the border from the USA). But nope. More Americunt Exceptionalism.
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Yes, it is bleedin' obvious.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
The Dead Hand was not a doomsday device. Modern accounts describe it as semi-automatic, with a group of people who had the final decision. In this respect it was no different than the US putting nuclear weapons on submarines. In fact, it was likely developed in response to the Trident C4/D5 missiles which were accurate enough that the US would be able to effectively cripple Soviet high command with a limited nuclear strike.
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
these were missiles being laundered from Russia to NK through Cuba
North Korea and Russia share a border. There's no reason for them to attempt what you're suggesting.
Just another day in Paradise
I would hope the answer is 'No'. Not after that little incident in 1962 anyway. I would hope that the CIA/NSA/Pentagon would make it their business to know exactly what kind of military technology is moving into/out of that country. Or they are not doing their f*king job, in my opinion.
Screw looking for online porn and tax havens. Keep an eye on the people with the nukes.
Maybe you haven't heard. But the NSA has had their hands full spying on American citizens.
That's just what they want you to think!
What was this fact downmodded? Because it sounds anti-American? The US government created Panama out of land it stole from Colombia and is in change of all of Central America. What's the beef in stating that?
Aside from that, the shippers were pretty dumb to try to take contraband through the canal. Oh well...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Wisecracks aside, has anyone seen any discussion about what the thing they confiscated is?
It's part of the supporting structure of a Fan Song fire-control radar. Of which NK has lots already.