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Suspected North Korean arms ship changes course
A North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy on suspicion of carrying a banned arms cargo may be returning home, a US official said, as Washington cracks down on companies helping Pyongyang export missile systems.
- Reuters
- Published: 22:52 July 1, 2009
Seoul: A North Korean ship tracked by the US Navy on suspicion of carrying a banned arms cargo may be returning home, a US official said, as Washington cracks down on companies helping Pyongyang export missile systems.
"Of course, it raises the costs of doing the arms and weapons of mass destruction business, but it won't stop them from trying to circumvent the sanctions," Daniel Pinkston, who is with the International Crisis Group in Seoul, said.
The North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam was the first to be monitored by the US Navy under a new system to track the North's arms shipments that were a part of the UN sanctions.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday the Kang Nam was heading back in the direction of North Korea after turning around within the last few days.
"We've no idea where it's going," the official said. "The US didn't do anything to make it turn around."
The ship was suspected of carrying missile parts and had been headed toward Myanmar, South Korean broadcaster YTN had quoted an intelligence source as saying.
North Korea and Myanmar have deepened their affinity as the world moves to increasingly isolate them, analysts said.
On Monday, Japanese police arrested three people, including one North Korean resident of Japan, on suspicion of trying to export to Myanmar a magnetic measuring device that could be used in missile construction, the Yomiuri newspaper said.
The US has targetted North Korea's Namchongang Trading and Iran's Hong Kong Electronics under an executive order that would freeze their US assets and bar US firms from dealing with them.
"North Korea uses front companies... and a range of other deceptive practices to obscure the true nature of its financial dealings, making it nearly impossible for responsible banks and governments to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate," said Stuart Levey, undersecretary of the US Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.
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