North Korean weapons shipments bound for Iran intercepted

Zachary Lynn

Issue date: 2/12/10 Section: World


In late December, Thai authorities, acting in support of a U.N. resolution, intercepted a North Korean Il-76 transport aircraft. When Thai authorities searched the plane, they found over 35 tons of rocket launchers, ammunition, and other small arms.

According to Business Week, while the official flight plan indicated that the plane's destination was Colombo, Sri Lanka, a report filed this week by Thai authorities to the United Nations Security Council claims that the North Korean plane was actually Iran-bound.

Charged with the trafficking of illegal arms and violating U.N. sanctions against trading with North Korea, all five crewmembers - four Kazakhs and one Belarusian ? were arrested. According to the Bangkok Post, members of the American intelligence community tipped off the Thai authorities about the plane.

Following the stipulations set forth in a 2009 U.N. sanction against the release and refueling of dubious North Korean aircraft, the plane was impounded where it landed in the Thai airport. The sanction, associated with U.N. resolution 1874, came as a response to North Korea's unbidden Taepodong-2 missile launch over the Sea of Japan and nuclear tests last year.

But resolution 1874 is just the latest in a series of U.N. resolutions affecting the armament sales of North Korea. Resolution 1718, passed in June 2006, banned the sale of "Armored combat vehicles, large caliber artillery systems, attack helicopters, missiles, and spare parts".

According to military reporting group globalsecurity.org, this is not the first time that North Korean weapons have been intercepted bound for Iran. In August 2009, the authorities of the United Arab Emirates intercepted a shipment of North Korean arms. Since 2006, Iran has steadily built up an arsenal of several hundred scud-c missiles, many of them purchased from North Korea, or manufactured with North Korean aid.

North Korea earns about $1.5 billion in annual income from missile sales abroad to countries such as Iran and Libya, according to a report published by the United States-based Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.


Associate Professor of History Zhihong Chen spoke of the reasoning for the partnership between Iran and North Korea.
"The partnership between Iran and North Korea has a lot to do with the axis of evil," she said. "Such a label forced them to take sides. Iran has been backed into a corner by the United States."

"North Korea has been an arms supplier, especially ballistic missiles, to the Middle East and terrorist groups for years," said Associate Professor of Political Science Robert Duncan.
Duncan suggested that these sales would certainly be considered a threat to United States national security, but only if they have been going on for some time.

So far, the United Nations missions of Iran and North Korea have declined to comment on the seizures, and it remains to be seen what further actions will be implemented by the United Nations Security Council.