| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| India moves North Korean ship to mainland |
| 2009-08-20 |
| PORT BLAIR, India - A North Korean ship intercepted in Indian waters off the Andaman Islands is being moved to the Indian mainland where investigations will continue, the coast guard said Thursday. The ship was intercepted last week after dropping anchor in Indian territorial waters without permission and failing to respond to signals, coast guard officials said earlier. Government officials have directed authorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to shift the cargo ship to the port of Kakinada in the eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. “Our coast guard vessel will be escorting the North Korean vessel up to Kakinada,” the commander of the Andaman and Nicobar coast guard region, K.R. Nautiyal, told AFP, adding that the ship set sail on Wednesday. Preliminary investigations have not found anything suspicious onboard the ship, which is loaded with sugar and has 39 crew members. A source involved in the investigation said the cargo might be unloaded in the larger port of Kakinada and searched more thoroughly — something that could not have be done in the Andaman islands. The interception came days after a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, quoting Myanmar defectors, said Pyongyang was helping Myanmar build a secret nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction plant for an atomic bomb. Pyongyang is seen as a proliferator of nuclear and missile technology with countries like Iran and Syria named by senior US officials as buyers. Two nuclear scientists from the Bhava Atomic Research Centre (BARC), who have also conducted a preliminary investigation of the ship, have said it does not contain any trace of nuclear components, the investigation source said. The ship set sail from Thailand on July 27 bound for Iraq and had halted en route in Singapore on July 30, the coast guard previously said. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #6 I bet the Indian boarding party had so many radiation badges under their clothes that it wasn't even funny. And not a damn one of them turned black, so they know it isn't nukes. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-08-20 15:59 |
| #5 Something seems way too "pat" about all of this. The ship anchors right off the coast as if saying "come and get me!". Wonder what has been sneaking past them while their attention is occupied by this vessel. |
| Posted by: Phinetle Squank7785 2009-08-20 14:12 |
| #4 I wonder how much of that "sugar" is really heroin or some other illicit drug. Get the money first, then deliver the "good" stuff. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-08-20 12:51 |
| #3 Do we know where that cargo of sugar came FROM? Pretty clealy wasn't North Korea. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-08-20 12:36 |
| #2 "Hey Nanda - where's that fine-toothed comb?" |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-08-20 11:45 |
| #1 Indian authorities plan to continue checking a North Korean cargo ship for any signs that it had carried WMD material, the Press Trust of India reported today (see GSN, Aug. 18). The freighter MV Mu San was detained after its crew moored in Indian waters without permission and then tried to flee the coast guard (see GSN, Aug. 14). Suspicions arose that the vessel might have been heading to or coming from Myanmar, which has been suspected of developing a nuclear program with aid from North Korea (see GSN, Aug. 18). So far, the only cargo found on the ship is sugar apparently bound for Iraq. Nonetheless, the coast guard is escorting the ship to the port at Kakinada, where it will be searched by nuclear scientists and security personnel. They will be looking for any signs of biological, chemical, nuclear or radioactive materials, PTI reported. A North Korean official and the 38 other members of the ship's crew are expected to be questioned (Press Trust of India/Indian Express, Aug. 19). |
| Posted by: john frum 2009-08-20 09:26 |