North Korean ship carrying hidden missile equipment detained after leaving Cuba

[jimmy olsen]

It was a secret plot to arm Panama all along!

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/16/19497159-north-korean-ship-carrying-hidden-missile-equipment-detained-after-leaving-cuba?lite

North Korean ship carrying hidden 'missile equipment' detained after leaving Cuba

By Ian Johnston and F. Brinley Bruton, NBC News

A North Korean ship carrying what is believed to be "sophisticated missile equipment" hidden in sugar containers was stopped while returning home from Cuba, Panamanian officials said late Monday.

Speaking to Radio Panama, President Ricardo Martinelli said the captain of the ship tried to kill himself after officials began searching the consignment of sugar.

The vessel -- identified by Lloyd's List Intelligence as the Chong Chon Gang -- was heading for the Panama Canal when it was stopped. It was then taken to the port of Manzanillo to be searched.
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"We suspected that it was carrying drugs and we brought it to port and we started verifying everything that was on the ship," he said. "We started disembarking the sugar and found some containers that we believe are carrying sophisticated missile equipment."

Martinelli said that the ship was being held while a "more thorough investigation" was carried out.

He added that officials had taken photographs of the arms – one of which he posted on Twitter – "so that the world knows that you can't transfer non-declared, war-like material through the Panama Canal."

"The Panama Canal is a canal of peace not of war," he told the radio station.

Panamanian authorities have detained some 35 crew members, Reuters reported.

The vessel "aroused suspicion by the violent reaction of the captain and the crew from Friday afternoon," Panama's Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told the radio station, according to AFP.

And Javier Caraballo, an anti-drugs enforcement official, said: "Until now we have not found drugs in the boat, we found military equipment." He told local television the ship was en route to North Korea, Reuters reported.

Richard Meade, editor of shipping journal Lloyd's List, said the ship was called Chong Chon Gang, a general cargo ship owned by the Chongchongang Shipping Company of Pyongyang.

The Lloyd's List Intelligence service tracks ships' movements via satellite and Meade said that "our casualty reporting service has flagged up the fact it was arrested."

Meade said he was still checking the Chong Chon Gang's movements, but initial information showed the vessel was in Tianjin, China, on Jan. 25, Vostochnyy, Russia on April 12, before arriving in Balboa, Panama, on the Pacific Coast on May 30. He said it passed through the Panama Canal on June 1.

He was unsure where it had been between those dates, but he was carrying out a more detailed search of their records early Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the Panama Canal told Reuters she did not have any more information and referred questions to the attorney general.  The attorney general's office did not immediately return requests for comment.

In April, Admiral Sam Locklear told Congress that the U.S. was capable of intercepting a missile launched by North Korea.

This came after months of heightened tensions due to missile and nuclear bomb tests by the North, during which it threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against U.S. and South Korean targets.

In October, 2012, North Korea claimed that the U.S. mainland was "within the scope" of its missiles.

There are fears Pyongyang is trying to build a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to the U.S.

[CountDeMoney]

Those damned Cubs.
Andre Dawson would never have allowed this.

[jimmy olsen]

FUCK! 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Canal of peace.

[FunkMonk]

I prefer canals of love.

[Grey Fox]

Next time, use a Chinese ship.

[Tamas]

Can there be a bigger fail? Trying to smuggle shit on a NK ship leaving Cuba? Srsly.

[CountDeMoney]

The vessel -- identified by Lloyd's List Intelligence as the Chong Chon Gang

Wait a minute, wasn't that the President's little pot smoking group in high school?

[derspiess]

lolz

[fhdz]

The vessel -- identified by Lloyd's List Intelligence as the Chong Chon Gang

Wait a minute, wasn't that the President's little pot smoking group in high school?