Posted on 06/21/2009 6:02:05 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday.
The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the U.S. suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.
YTN said the U.S. has deployed a destroyer and is using satellites to track the ship, which was expected to travel to Myanmar via Singapore.
South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. Calls to the U.S. military command in Seoul were not answered late Sunday.
The ship is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the new U.N. sanctions.
Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, which left a North Korean port Wednesday and was traveling off the coast of China.
One of the officials said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but that it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked since North Korea defiantly conducted its second nuclear explosion on May 25. It later declared it would expand its atomic bomb program and threatened war to protest the U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear test.
The sanctions toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Yep. By my tally, they owe us a ship anyway.
Being a North Korean ship it could be carrying missiles or a thousand pallets of counterfeit Viagra.
Overhead satellites can detect what is on deck but can they detect what is actually in the cargo hold?
lol
NK with it’s smoke and mirrors again, same-o, same-o, year after year.
Why don’t we just torpedo the blasted thing? I honestly think some people would assume that the cargo had blown up, knowing how kooky the Norks are.
We should kill them, and say nothing.
This ship might be carrying dangerous stuff. Gee, Greenpeace should be out there trying to ram them. /sarc
Also, $ would go a long way to buying HUMINT there and SK agents can penetrate and pass as NKans.
I agree
“Wonder if this enough of a no-brainer.”
We are dealing with Democrats here, therefore no brains are involved.
BTTT
I think that there is South Korean agents in North Korea. They speak the same language. Many South Koreans families have North Korean families.
The UN is as worthless as the teats on a boar hog.
Got to thinking about this...(that is a scary thought, but necessary)...
Anyway, there is somethign about this whole story that reeks of Muhammad Ali’s famous “Rope a Dope” strategy in the boxing ring...
The NK want us to molest this ship...In whatever way shape or form...To what ends is left to be seen...Sure they could try to get a war going with the south, but that would be their demise...They may be crazy, but what they do not yet realize is their foundation of support from Russia and China is fading to a level where they may not get a lot of support if they decide to wage war upon the rest of the world...
On the other hand, the threat they levied against us in telling everyone they are pointing a rocket AT Hawaii, doesn’t do anything but piss a few people off...
I seriously doubt that rocket will make it halfway to Hawaii...But the threat alone is enough to distract a few from their ship being tailed...
And keep them in the news around the world for some reason...
Notice how the track of the ship is close to China??? That will only last for so long...
My take?
They will stop it and board it, when she gets somewhere near Vietnam. Vietnam was a temp. Security Council member that voted along with the rest against North Korea last week, and its representative had some choice words. Once that Kang Nam is free from Chinese area, all bets are off. What is that? Two or three days off? It also depends if they slow down to stay purposely near their protector, China, if they figure the US is actually going to act.
We’ll see...72 hours...
No, just string a fishing net in their path, let it wrap up the drive shaft, rendering it uncontrollable...
We go over in a humanitarian effort to save the crew (great PR stuff) and take a closer look at what they have in the holds, and voila, zee case iz solved...
No explosives, no rounds expended...
And egg over the faces of Kimmy and his entourage...
The best non-explosive scenario, preventing loss of human life and manipulating PR in favor of the U.S. Navy.
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