Panama detains North Korean ship with smuggled weapons on board

North Korean container ship ''Chong Chon Gang'' docks at the Manzanillo International Container Terminal in Colon City July 16, 2013 (Reuters / Carlos Jasso)

Panama has detained a North Korean-flagged ship from Cuba, discovering weapons hidden in brown sugar containers. 

Panama’s president has confirmed the finding by posting a photo of the military equipment on Twitter.
Cuban officials claimed the arms discovered on the ship were "obsolete Cuban missiles" being sent for repair. US military analysts, however, said the weapons could be upgraded into air-defense systems to be used against modern aircraft.

The Chong Chon Gang vessel was initially stopped on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal on suspicion of carrying drugs.

A picture on Panama President Ricardo Martinelli's official Twitter page showed a long dark-green missile-shaped object, previously identified by IHS Jane's global analytics firm as an RSN-75 'Fan Song' fire control radar for the SA-2 family of surface-to-air missiles.

John Pike of Globalsecurity.org, which monitors international weapons, told USA Today the SA-2 was used in 1960 to shoot down a U-2 spy plane. Since then, he said, American engineers have worked to minimize the weapons' threat.

"I think the United States and South Korea and Japan have reasonable confidence they can jam it and blow up its radars and it could be rendered ineffective, but it could not be ignored," he said.

Martinelli told local television that 35 crew members were detained after resisting the efforts of the Panamanian authorities to redirect the ship to a nearby port of Manzanillo, while the captain attempted to commit suicide.

“This material not being declared and Panama being a neutral country, a country in peace, that doesn't like war, we feel very worried about this war material and we don't know what else will have... passed through the Panama Canal,” Panama’s president stressed.

"We're going to keep unloading the ship and figure out exactly what was inside. You can’t go around shipping undeclared weapons of war through the Panama Canal," Martinelli added.

Panama's security minister, Jose Raul Mulino, told Reuters that so far two only containers of military equipment have been discovered, hidden under 250,000 bags of sugar, each weighing 100 kilograms.

Panama's top anti-drugs prosecutor, Javier Caraballo, told local television that the ship was en route to North Korea.

Shipping data obtained by IHS Maritime research group showed that the Chong Chon Gang passed through the Panama Canal on June 1, with a stated destination of Havana, Cuba.

After that it disappeared from the tracking system and reappeared in Manzanillo, Panama, on July 11, with IHS saying there were indications that the ship had changed cargo in the interim.

In 2010, the Chong Chon Gang was stopped by Ukrainian authorities, who found small-arms ammunition and narcotics aboard the vessel, Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, told Reuters.

The North Korean government has not yet commented on the claims by the Panama authorities.

Meanwhile, State Department deputy spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, said that “the US strongly supports Panama's decision to inspect the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) flagged vessel."

North Korea is barred from all arms exports as part of international sanctions imposed on the Communist state due to its controversial nuclear weapons program.

The sanctions against Pyongyang were toughened in February, following a new nuclear test and promises to continue developing nuclear arms, which it said was necessary due to US aggression.

According to UN data it’s not the first time that Pyongyang has violated the ban as it also shipped arms-related material to Syria in 2010 and delivered rocket fuses for Iran in 2008.


RT

North Korea says 'Prepare for War' after latest sanctions

Dictator Kim Jong Un has cancelled the nonaggression pact and closed its shared border with the South, in the latest sign of rising tensions, according to CBS News.

 The Daily Mail also reported this morning that the dictator told his troops to "prepare for war" and to make the first strike if tensions "boil over."

The shared border is a small office building on the demilitarized zone where leaders can cross the border with immunity to conduct talks. It's also a symbol of each side's willingness to sit down and talk.

"This surge in provocative rhetoric is particularly dangerous," Michael Auslin of the American Enterprise Institute told CNN's Jethro Mullen. "South Korea's new president (Park Geun Hye) can't be seen to back down in the face of the North's threats, while Kim Jong Un may feel that his successful missile and nuclear tests give him the ability to keep pressuring Seoul. The two may wind up talking themselves into conflict."

Analysts say that the North is furious over new harsh sanctions, signed in the U.N. yesterday, and supported even by North Korea's ally, China. The sanctions take aim at cash transfers, luxury items, financial institutions and technology acquisitions that may aid weapons development.

The first set of sanctions against North Korea, following their rocket launch last year, took aim at food aid from the U.S. Withholding U.S. food aid from the country could lead to 3 million deaths by starvation, according to the U.N.

But the latest set of sanctions have evidently ruffled feathers of North Korea's leaders,, eliciting a litany of harsh rhetoric.

North and South Korea have exchanged a large number of incidents, some resulting in deaths, since the armistice was signed by both countries in 1953 — and this one in particular was easy to see coming, some analysts say.

As noted by CNN's Jethro Mullen, research from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that Pyongyang has carried out "a military provocation of some form within weeks of every South Korean presidential inauguration dating back to 1992."

The dictator also threatened "thermonuclear war" against America, which the U.S. quickly dismissed, saying the North didn't seem capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Other reports said that if the North could deliver one, they would be able to at least hit two of America's allies, South Korea and Japan.

Were that to happen, the international community would undoubtedly respond with reciprocal actions.

source

Interesting:

Unusual geological event in North Korea on Tuesday, 12 February, 2013 at 04:00 (04:00 AM) UTC 

Unusual geological event in North Korea on Tuesday, 12 February, 2013 at 04:00 (04:00 AM) UTC

The U.S. Geological Survey is reporting a 4.9-magnitude earthquake in North Korea, raising fears that Pyongyang may have gone ahead with its threat to conduct a third nuclear test. 

The USGS report put the epicenter of the quake in Kilju county, near where North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test site is located. South Korean officials would not confirm whether the widely anticipated nuclear test had taken place, but several officials says it is the "likely" cause of the quake.
 

North Korea is not prone to seismic activity. Earlier Tuesday, North Korean state media threatened an unspecified "high-intensity" action, but did not mention any possible nuclear test.

The magnitude of an unusual seismic event in North Korea was 4.9 on the Richter scale, an international nuclear test monitoring agency said on Tuesday, bigger than the 4.52 measured when the North carried out a test in 2009.
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) also estimated the time for the event at around 0258 GMT.

SEOUL, South Korea — New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart have agreed to make sure North Korea is punished if it carries out its threat to conduct a nuclear test.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has convened a meeting of the National Security Council in response to the suspected test. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is also holding an emergency meeting Tuesday. North Korea has threatened to carry out its third nuclear test in retaliation for United Nations sanctions that were expanded last month in response to a recent long-range rocket launch. 

President Barack Obama said North Korea's latest nuclear test was a "highly provocative act" that hurt stability in the region and called its nuclear program a threat to U.S. and international security.
"The danger posed by North Korea's threatening activities warrants further swift and credible action by the international community. The United States will also continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies," Obama said in a statement.
"We will strengthen close coordination with allies and partners and work with our Six-Party partners, the United Nations Security Council, and other UN member states to pursue firm action," he said.

Moscow has condemned North Korea’s nuclear test saying Pyongyang’s behaviour amounted to a blatant violation of the UN Security Council’s provisions, a source in the Russian foreign ministry has told reporters.

 “We strongly disapprove of North Korea who blatantly ignored the demands of the UN Security Council and international community,” the source said. Russia "decisively condemned" North Korea's nuclear test on Tuesday, calling it a violation of Pyonyang's international obligations, a Foreign Ministry source told Interfax news agency.

U.S. intelligence agencies are aware of a "seismic event," which North Korea has claimed was a nuclear test, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said on Tuesday.
"The intelligence community is aware of a seismic event with explosive characteristics in North Korea and we are evaluating all relevant information," the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement.

The top U.S. military commander in South Korea said earlier this week that he worries about another North Korean provocation, and that U.S. forces are in a period of “high vulnerability” following Pyongyang’s test of a long-range rocket last month.

North Korea confirmed on Tuesday it has successfully conducted a third nuclear test, saying it used a miniaturized device that had a greater explosive force than previous tests, the North's KCNA official news agency said.
"It was confirmed that the nuclear test that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment," KCNA said.

Japan will consider its own sanctions against North Korea which has appeared to have conducted a nuclear test, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday. "I have ordered that we consider every possible way to address this issue, including our own sanctions, while cooperating with other countries," Abe told reporters after a meeting of Japan's security council.

South Korea requested the U.N. Security Council hold an emergency meeting at 11:00 p.m. (Seoul time) as North Korea is believed to have conducted a nuclear test, a Seoul diplomat said Tuesday.
The U.N. Security Council meeting will be held at 9:00 a.m. (New York time) on Tuesday, according to the diplomat.
South Korea defense ministry says North Korea quake indicates nuclear blast of six to seven kilotons.



One week earlier:

SEOUL, Feb 3, 2013 (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un chaired a top military meeting that discussed a looming "great turn" in military capability, state media said Sunday, fuelling expectations of an imminent nuclear test.
Kim made a "historic" speech at the Central Military Commission meeting, attended by the heads of the Korean army, the powerful National Defence Commission and the strategic rocket force, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The meeting discussed "bringing about a great turn in bolstering military capability", said KCNA, which gave no date or details of Kim's speech.
Experts and intelligence sources say North Korea has completed preparations for a third nuclear test, which Pyongyang threatened in response to UN sanctions imposed for a long-range rocket launch it carried out in December.

Over the past week, Pyongyang has issued a series of daily warnings threatening action over the UN sanctions, including a promise Saturday of the "toughest retaliation".
A number of observers in South Korea believe the nuclear test will come before the Lunar New Year on February 10.

In his "important" speech to the military commission, Kim Jong-Un issued specific guidelines for "defending the security and sovereignty of the country", KCNA said.
It did not elaborate but said participants vowed to "thoroughly implement the military tasks set forth".
The North insists its December rocket launch was a purely scientific mission to put a satellite into orbit. But the US and its allies, including the South, viewed it as a disguised ballistic missile test that violated UN resolutions prompted by the North's past nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.



Boddhi