Suspect North Korean Ship Has Been
Detained Several Times for Maritime
Violations
Friday, June 19, 2009
The incident came just weeks after an earlier Security Council
resolution was passed in response to North Korea’s first nuclear
weapons test. That resolution, 1718, allowed for the stopping and
searching of ships suspected to be carrying WMD-related items,
while stopping short of obliging states to do so.
The timing of the detentions prompted speculation that they could
be linked to the resolution. South Korean media reported that the
U.S. government had requested the authorities to search Kang
Nam 1, and reports at the time said the U.S. and Japan had
tracked the ship since it left North Korea.
Hong Kong officials said the inspection was routine, and Marine
Department records show that the two ships were among a total of
six to be detained in Hong Kong that month for maritime
violations.
Kang Nam 1 was allowed to sail 13 days later, and Kang
Nam 5, which was found to have 23 deficiencies, was detained
for two months before it was allowed to leave after making repairs
to communications and other equipment to meet maritime
requirements.
Chinese media at the time reported that the North Korean ships’
usual cargo was scrap metal.
The Kang Nam 1 made an appearance again in May 2007, when
it docked in a port near Rangoon, Burma, prompting suspicions about
the possible shipment of illicit cargo from one pariah state to
another.
The military junta’s foreign ministry subsequently issued a
statement to foreign embassies, saying the ship had been permitted
to dock for repairs and to take on supplies after being caught in a
storm at sea.
The statement said authorities had inspected the vessel and found
no “suspicious cargo or military equipment” on board.
Maritime records show that Kang Nam 1 was bought by the
North Korean company in 2003, prior to which it flew the South
Korean flag. Before that, it was registered in St. Vincent and
Grenadines, a common flag of convenience country.
Previous names for the ship included Jang Yung Ace and
Hai Da and it was evidently built at a German shipyard in
1989.
According to a directory of companies available via a North Korean
government Web site, Kumrung Trading exports “concentrates of gold,
lead and zinc, base bullion, pyrites, nonmetallic minerals, marine
products, clothes [and] pure silk sashes.” It imports “heavy-duty
machines, rolling stocks and parts, pitch, mining equipment and
materials [and] stone processing tools.”
The directory gave a Pyongyang telephone number. A woman who
answered the phone Friday declined to talk and hung up.
Past seizures
North Korean ships have been interdicted on the high seas in the
past.
In December 2002, a North Korean ship flying no flag and carrying
Scud missiles was intercepted in the Arabian Sea by a Spanish
warship acting on an American request.
The ship, crew and cargo were turned over to the U.S. Once it was
established that the missiles were destined for the government of
Yemen rather than for Iraq or terrorist groups, it allowed the
vessel to go.
The following May, President Bush lay the groundwork for the
Proliferation Security Initiative, a program designed to prevent
WMD proliferation by stopping and searching suspect ships. The PSI
began with 11 participating allies – the U.S., Australia, Japan,
Britain, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal
and Poland – but has since expanded significantly. South Korea,
after years of reluctance, joined the PSI the day after the North’s
second nuclear test last month.
In April 2003,
Australian helicopter-borne special forces landed on a North Korean
cargo vessel, the Pong Su, off the Australian coast near
Sydney and seized control of the bridge.
The dramatic operation took place after the ship’s crew refused
orders to head to the nearest port.
The authorities had begun shadowing the Pong Su
after crew offloaded 150 kilograms of heroin by dinghy off the
coast about 600 miles to the south-west.
The captain and crew were arrested and charged, but some were
discharged while four senior officers were later acquitted and
deported. Pyongyang is believed to use the narcotics trade to
finance its military and WMD programs.
In 2006 the Royal Australian Air Force sunk the Pong Su
with two laser guided bombs, in an exercise designed both as target
practice and to send a message to North Korea.
In August 2003, a
North Korean ship, the Pegaebong sailing from Thailand to
North Korea, was searched – at U.S. request – by Taiwanese
officials when it docked in Taiwan’s Kaohsiung
port. The Taiwanese found and confiscated a cargo
of phosphorus pentasulfide, a chemical compound that can be used in
insecticides and lubricants, but also in making chemical weapons
like the deadly nerve agent VX.
Pyongyang protested the seizure, calling it “a criminal act in
wanton violation of international law” and describing the cargo as
a legal “reagent necessary for dressing non-ferrous metal.”
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