Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
BREAKING NEWS: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
http://endtimeheadlines.files.wordpr...arge.jpg?w=620
DEVELOPING: PANAMA CITY (AP) – Panama says it has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying what appeared to be ballistic missiles and other arms that had set sail from Cuba. Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli told RPC radio on Monday that the ship had been headed for North Korea. There were no immediate details on the quantity of arms aboard. Martinelli said the undeclared military cargo appeared to include missiles and non-conventional arms. He said the ship was violating United Nations resolutions against arms trafficking. Earlier, the president said on his Twitter account that the arms were “hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar.” He offered no details but posted a photo of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship’s hold. Martinelli told RPC the 35 North Koreans on the boat resisted police efforts to take the ship to the Caribbean port of Manzanillo. The crew was later taken into custody. Martinelli said the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation. He said authorities had been tipped off some days ago that the ship might be carrying drugs. 48 News
July 16th, 2013, 12:39
American Patriot
Re: Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
Panama seizes North Korean ship
Posted: Jul 16, 2013 4:14 AM MST Updated: Jul 16, 2013 6:34 AM MST
By JUAN ZAMORANO
Associated Press
PANAMA CITY (AP) - Panama's president said the country has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying what appeared to be ballistic missiles and other arms that had set sail from Cuba.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli told RPC radio on Monday that the ship had been headed for North Korea.
There were no immediate details on the quantity of arms aboard.
Martinelli said the undeclared military cargo appeared to include missiles and non-conventional arms. He said the ship was violating United Nations resolutions against arms trafficking.
Earlier, the president said on his Twitter account that the arms were "hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar."
He offered no details but posted a photo of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship's hold.
Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the seized ship is called Chong Chon Gang and has been on the institute's suspect list for some time.
He said the ship had been caught before for trafficking narcotics and small arms ammunition. It was stopped in 2010 in the Ukraine and was attacked by pirates 400 miles off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
Griffiths' institute has also been interested in the ship because of a stop it made in 2009 in Tartus - a Syrian port city hosting a Russian naval base.
Griffiths also said the institute earlier this year reported to the U.N. a discovery it made of a flight from Cuba to North Korea that travelled via central Africa.
"Given the history of North Korea, Cuban military cooperation and now this latest seizure, we find this flight more interesting," he said. "After this incident there should be renewed focus on North Korean-Cuban links."
Martinelli told RPC the 35 North Koreans on the boat resisted police efforts to take the ship to the Caribbean port of Manzanillo. The crew was later taken into custody.
Martinelli said the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation.
He said authorities had been tipped off some days ago that the ship might be carrying drugs.
AP writer Malin Rising in Stockholm contributed to this report.
July 16th, 2013, 12:41
American Patriot
Re: Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying missiles
8:14 a.m. EDT July 16, 2013
SHARECONNECT 33 TWEETCOMMENTEMAILMORE
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama says it has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying what appeared to be ballistic missiles and other arms that had set sail from Cuba.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli told RPC radio on Monday that the ship had been headed for North Korea.
There were no immediate details on the quantity of arms aboard.
Martinelli said the undeclared military cargo appeared to include missiles and non-conventional arms. He said the ship was violating United Nations resolutions against arms trafficking.
Earlier, the president said on his Twitter account that the arms were "hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar."
He offered no details but posted a photo of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship's hold.
Martinelli told RPC the 35 North Koreans on the boat resisted police efforts to take the ship to the Caribbean port of Manzanillo. The crew was later taken into custody.
Martinelli said the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation.
He said authorities had been tipped off some days ago that the ship might be carrying drugs.
July 16th, 2013, 12:42
American Patriot
Re: Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
16 July 2013 Last updated at 03:17 ET
North Korean ship with 'military cargo' held by Panama
Panama's president says his country has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying "undeclared military cargo".
President Ricardo Martinelli told local media that the ship, which was sailing from Cuba, contained suspected "sophisticated missile equipment".
He posted a photo of what looked like a large green object inside a cargo container on his Twitter account.
He said the ship, which was searched on its way into the Panama Canal, was being held for further investigation.
The ship was stopped near Manzanillo on the Atlantic side of the canal.
Mr Martinelli said the authorities were checking the ship for drugs when they found the suspected weapons in containers of brown sugar.
"We're going to keep unloading the ship and figure out exactly what was inside," he told local media.
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".
Missile programme
Under UN sanctions, North Korea is banned from weapons exports and the import of all but small arms.
Sanctions were strengthened after its third nuclear test on 12 February, including measures increasing states' authority to inspect suspicious cargo.
In recent years a number of North Korean ships have been searched under the UN sanctions.
In July 2009 a North Korean ship heading to Burma was tracked by the US navy on suspicion of transporting weapons and subsequently turned around.
North Korea has an ongoing missile development programme.
In December it launched what it called a three-stage rocket to put a satellite into space. The move was condemned by the United Nations as a banned test of missile technology.
Experts believe the communist state is working towards developing a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a long-range missile.
July 16th, 2013, 16:41
American Patriot
Re: Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
Officials: 'Violent' confrontation on North Korean ship
By Mariano Castillo. Castalia Pascual and David Simpson, CNN
updated 12:36 PM EDT, Tue July 16, 2013
Officials: A search finds military equipment hidden among brown sugar
The crew resisted arrest, a minister says
The captain suffered a heart attack and tried to commit suicide, officials say
(CNN) -- It has all the elements of international intrigue: a violent confrontation aboard a detained North Korean ship, a suspected missile, a heart attack and an attempted suicide.
Panamanian authorities on Tuesday were examining mysterious objects found aboard a ship headed from Cuba to North Korea, officials said.
The objects, discovered late Monday during an anti-drug inspection, appeared to have been hidden among a cargo of brown sugar, officials said.
Because of its nuclear weapons program, North Korea is banned by the United Nations from importing and exporting most weapons.
Few details of the confrontation were available, but the ship's North Korean crew of 35 resisted arrest, said Panama's security minister, Jose Raul Mulino. He described it as "violent," saying that the crew tried to sabotage the ship by cutting cables on the cranes that would be used to unload cargo. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/ass...story-body.jpg
The North Korean vessel is docked at the Manzanillo Port in Panama on Tuesday, July 16.
During the struggle with Panamanian authorities, the ship's captain suffered an apparent heart attack and then tried to kill himself, according to President Ricardo Martinelli.
The crew also refused to raise the ship's anchor, the minister of public safety said, forcing Panamanian authorities to cut the anchor loose to move the ship.
The situation was intriguing enough to attract Martinelli himself to travel to the ship and take a look -- with reporters in tow.
Is it a missile? a reported asked.
"Maybe," Martinelli said. "I am not familiar with that, but it would be good if such things didn't pass through Panama, which is a country that loves peace and not war."
The president tweeted a photo of what he saw: a green octagon-shaped tube with a cone at its end and a similar-looking piece of equipment behind it.
As of Tuesday, authorities had not identified the weapons or their country of origin, Mulino said. Those details would not be known until all the sugar was unloaded and the objects removed from the ship.
Martinelli said he didn't examine all the containers but assumes that there are similar weapons in the others, hidden under the sugar.
Authorities seized the vessel and the undeclared haul of weaponry in the Panamanian port of Manzanillo.
Mulino said the ship had arrived from Cuba.
Cuban officials have not responded to requests for comment.
Cuban state media reported late last month that North Korean army Chief of Staff Gen. Kim Kyok Sik visited the island and had high-level meetings, including one with Cuban leader Raul Castro.
In the United States, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida, described the incident as "serious and alarming" and a "wakeup call" for the Obama administration to avoid normalizing U.S. relations with Cuba.
Panama said it will ask a United Nations technical support team to inspect the cargo to determine what type of weaponry it is.
"Honestly, this kind of military equipment can't go through the country while declaring that it is something else, especially hiding it as you can see here," Martinelli said. "We will continue to empty the entire ship to see what's in it, and the relevant authorities will determine what exactly is on this ship."
In 2011, the U.S. Navy tried -- and failed -- to gain permission to board a ship in the South China Sea suspected of carrying illicit weapons technology to Myanmar, the Pentagon said. The Belize-flagged MV Light was believed to have been manned by a North Korean crew, the Pentagon said. Under U.S. Navy surveillance, the vessel eventually turned around and headed to North Korea.
In 2007, the Pentagon confirmed that several shipments of suspected weapons technology had left North Korea destined for Syria. The Pentagon said some of the material was believed to have been high-grade metals that could be used to build missiles or solid-fuel rockets.
CNN reported in 2011 that an unpublished U.N. report claimed North Korea was trading banned weapons technology with several countries, including Iran.
July 16th, 2013, 17:28
vector7
Re: Breaking News: Panama seizes North Korean ship carrying Ballistic Missiles
