Thai arms experts inspect seized N Korean cargo

A team of more than 100 police and weapon experts sorted through more than 145 crates of cargo, initially labeled drilling equipment, at an air force base in northern Thailand, four days after the transport plane made an unexplained stop in Bangkok.

“Authorities found various kinds of weapons including rocket launchers, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air-missiles,” Sirisak Tiyapan, head of international affairs at the Office of the Attorney-General, told Reuters.

“Experts will inspect further. That could provide clues in terms of who might want this sort of weapons, where they might be going, and where they were produced,” he added.

A Thai court extended the detention of the five-man crew – four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus – by 12 days to give the authorities more time to investigate.

They each face 10 years in prison if found guilty of illegal possession of heavy weapons.

Mystery continued to surround why the plane landed in Bangkok on Friday and the circumstances which led to the seizure of the cargo. Crew members denied knowledge of any weapons on board and indicated that the plane stopped en route to Sri Lanka and the Middle East to refuel and fix a wheel.

The weapons could be in breach of a U.N. Security Council resolution in June banning communist North Korea from selling weapons in response to its defiant nuclear and missile tests.

South Korea impounded four cargo containers in September under the same resolution and analysts said the latest seizure could complicate the North’s clandestine arms trade and pressure Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table.

Thai media has speculated the cargo plane may have been forced to land by Thai fighter jets following tip-offs by the United States, which was monitoring the plane’s movements.

The government has not commented on the reports.

Arms exports to Middle East
Thawil Pliansri, secretary-general of Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC) which advises the government, said officials were yet to determine the destination of the cargo. He did not say why the plane landed in Bangkok.

“We didn’t want it to land here,” Thawil said. “We had tip-offs that this plane might be carrying something illegal so we asked to search it. We had to in order to comply with the (UN) resolution.”

An NSC official, who declined to be identified, told reporters authorities were acting on US intelligence.

Arms are a vital export item estimated to earn North Korea more than $1bn a year. Its biggest arms sales come from ballistic missiles, with Iran and Middle Eastern states among their customers, according to US officials.

Analysts said the cargo seizure would increase the cost, and risk, of buying arms from North Korea, which could force Pyongyang to consider rejoining stalled nuclear talks in the hope of receiving aid.

“This is a tremendous blow to North Korea’s very crucial revenue source,” said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. “Who would give business to a courier service, for example, that won’t deliver?”

“[This] points to a greater likelihood that the North will look to dialogue with the United States and also the six-party talks as a way out.”

Speaking in Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the seizure was a sign that sanctions on North Korea were working.

“And it shows that the international community, when it stands together, can make a very strong statement regarding what we expect from a state like North Korea,” she told reporters.