.....I’m sure there’s some perfectly innocent explanation for this.....
Certainly...... The CIA bribed the crew
Exactly. No way is the NK government/military so hard up for cash that they can't put enough fuel in a plane full of secret arms cargo to get it to its destination.
And I imagine it didn't cost must to bribe the Kazakh and Belarussian crew members. A few bottles of vodka probably did the trick.
It's very interesting, though, that this plane was using Kazakh and Belarussian crew. Presumably this is an indication that NK doesn't have any pilots who they trust -- either to get the cargo to its destination or to come home again afterwards instead of signing up as CIA helpers. But you'd think the receiving country (Pakistan or any other) could have come up with its own pilots for a mission like this. Or maybe Kazakhstan or Belarus was the receiving country and misjudged the loyalty of the best pilots/crew they could come up with. Either way, it's a good sign.