Daily Mail – by ANTHONY BONDCuba has said missiles and fighter jets found buried under sacks of sugar on a ship bound for North Korea were being sent to the secretive state to be repaired.
The Caribbean nation admitted last night that it owned the military equipment and said it was due to be returned to the island once repairs had been completed.
The admission came after it emerged the captain of the ship had a heart attack and tried to kill himself as authorities in Panama attempted to board the vessel last week.
The 35 man crew – made up of North Koreans – tried to resist arrest by rioting with the authorities.
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Controversy: Cuba has said missiles found buried under sacks of sugar on a ship bound for North Korea were being sent to the secretive state to be repaired
Speaking out: The Caribbean nation admitted last night that it owned the military equipment and said it was due to be returned to the island once repairs had been completed
The ship, which has been identified as the 14,000-ton Chong Chon Gang, was carrying missiles and other arms ‘hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar.’
It was seized last week as it tried to cross the Panama Canal. North Korea is barred by U.N. sanctions from importing sophisticated weapons or missiles.
In a statement, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said: ‘The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national sovereignty’.
It said the vessel was bound for North Korea mostly loaded with sugar – 10,000 tons of it – but added that the cargo also included 240 metric tons of ‘obsolete defensive weapons’: two Volga and Pechora anti-aircraft missile systems, nine missiles ‘in parts and spares,’ two MiG-21 Bis and 15 engines for those airplanes.
Fighter jets and missiles on North Korean ship
Concerns: The ship, which has been identified as the 14,000-ton Chong Chon Gang, was carrying missiles and other arms ‘hidden in containers underneath the cargo of sugar’
Held: The ship was seized last week as it tried to cross the Panama Canal
Panama President Ricardo Martinelli tweeted this picture of what he said were undeclared weapons and later identified as outdated, Soviet-era arms
It concluded by saying that Havana remains ‘unwavering’ in its commitment to international law, peace and nuclear disarmament.
Panamanian authorities said it might take a week to search the ship, since so far they have only examined one of its five container sections.
They have requested help from United Nations inspectors, along with Colombia and Britain.
Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli tweeted a photo showing a green tube that appears to be a horizontal antenna for the SNR-75 ‘Fan Song’ radar, which is used to guide missiles fired by the SA-2 air-defense system found in former Warsaw Pact and Soviet-allied nations, said Neil Ashdown, an analyst for IHS Jane’s Intelligence.
‘It is possible that this could be being sent to North Korea to update its high-altitude air-defense capabilities,’ Mr Ashdown said.
North Korea has not commented on the seizure, during which 35 North Koreans were arrested after resisting police efforts to intercept the ship in Panamanian waters last week, according to Martinelli. He said the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide.
A MiG-21 similar to the ones found within the North Korean vessel that had set off from Cuba. Both countries’ air forces currently use the fighter
Going home: Panamanian presidential security detail walks on the deck aboard the Chong Chon Gang, which was on its way home from Havanna carrying outdated weaponry
The 35-man crew on board the Chong Chon Gang (pictured at the Panama port) rioted and the captain tried to kill himself when Panamanian authorities intercepted it
Long haul: Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli gives a thumbs up to workers inside the Chong Chon Gang. Searching the entire cargo hold will take several more days
Powerful drug: The ship has been under scrutiny from international authorities since 2009 and Panamanian police originally boarded in the belief it carried drugs
The president announced the ship had been detained through Twitter
The U.N. Security Council has imposed four rounds of increasingly tougher sanctions against North Korea since its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006.
Under current sanctions, all U.N. member states are prohibited from directly or indirectly supplying, selling or transferring all arms, missiles or missile systems and the equipment and technology to make them to North Korea, with the exception of small arms and light weapons.
The most recent resolution, approved in March after Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test, authorizes all countries to inspect cargo in or transiting through their territory that originated in North Korea, or is destined to North Korea if a state has credible information the cargo could violate Security Council resolutions.
‘Panama obviously has an important responsibility to ensure that the Panama Canal is utilized for safe and legal commerce,’ said Acting U.S. Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, who is the current Security Council president.
‘Shipments of arms or related material to or from Korea would violate Security Council resolutions, three of them as a matter of fact’.
The crew have been arrested and the ship has been detained at the Manzanillo International terminal
Still searching: A worker inspects the Chong Chon Gang at the Manzanillo Container Terminal in Colon City. The country requested help in searching the ship from Colombia, UK, and United Nations authorities
World tour: Authorities in Panama say the ship was travelling from the Pacific coast of Russia to North Korea via the Panama Canal after a stop in Havanna
Panamanian authorities believed the ship was returning from Havana on its way to North Korea,
Panamanian Public Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino told The Associated Press.
Based on unspecified intelligence, authorities suspected it could be carrying contraband and tried to communicate with the crew, who didn’t respond. Martinelli said Panama originally suspected drugs could be aboard.
‘Panama being a neutral country, a country in peace, that doesn’t like war, we feel very worried about this military material,’ Martinelli said.
In early July, a top North Korean general, Kim Kyok Sik, visited Cuba and met with his island counterparts.
The Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said he was also received by President Raul Castro, and the two had an ‘exchange about the historical ties that unite the two nations and the common will to continue strengthening them.’
Undercover? The bags were labeled Cuban Raw Sugar
Something’s wrong here: As Panamanian air and sea police oficers boarded the Chong Chong Gang, the ship’s crew of 35 resisted them and then tried to resist arrest
The meetings were held behind closed doors, and there has been no detailed account of their discussions.
‘After this incident there should be renewed focus on North Korean-Cuban links,’ said Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Griffiths said his institute told the U.N. this year that it had uncovered evidence 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.
Clued in: Photos of the crew of the Chong Chon Gang hang in the ship. As suspicious Panama authorities went aboard to conduct a search, the ship’s captain had a heart attack and attempted suicide
Photos of late North Korean autocrats Kim il-Sung and Kim Jong-il hang in many of the ship’s crew quarters. All 35 crew members were arrested
Panama’s President Ricardo Martinelli walks up a ramp to the North Korean-flagged ship. He would later post photos of the missiles to Twitter
The Chong Chon Gang has a history of being detained on suspicion of trafficking drugs and ammunition, Griffiths said.
Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the 34-year-old ship, which is registered to the Pyongyang-based Chongchongang Shipping Company, ‘has a long history of detentions for safety deficiencies and other undeclared reasons.’
Griffiths said the Chong Chon Gang 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 2009 stop it made in Tartus – a Syrian port city hosting a Russian naval base.
International incident: A Panamanian police stands guard in the ship as authorities await the assistance of several other countries, as well as the United Nations
Misunderstanding? Cuba announced late Tuesday that the equipment did indeed come from Havana, but was just going out for repairs
His greatness: A security guard is reflected on a photo of former leader Kim Jong-il and former president Kim Il-sung inside the ship, now swarming with Panama police
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2366581/Cuba-says-missiles-hidden-sugar-aboard-North-Korean-ship-sent-secretive-state-repairs.html#ixzz2ZPYNcZEl
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Simply a misunderstanding, I’m sure.