No Radioactive material on Korean Ship: Preliminary reports

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The seized North Korean ship
does not seem to have any trace of chemical, biological,
radioactive or nuclear material, the report of two nuclear
scientists who carried out preliminary investigations at Port
Blair suggests.

In their preliminary investigations at Port Blair, team
of nuclear scientists from Kalapakkam has ruled out existence
of any "CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear)
traces" from the ship.

The security agencies however want a thorough
investigation of the North Korean ship 'M V Mu San' by
bringing her to Kakinada port in India's southern state of
Andhra Pradesh to find out whether there was any CBRN
consignment.

The exhaustive searches will again be conducted with the
help of more sophisticated equipment after offloading entire
16,500 kilograms of sugar from the ship, an official, who did
not wish to be named, said.

Meanwhile, the Port Blair police are yet to send their
report about the entire incident.

The Centre Thursday sent a stern letter to the Port Blair
police asking them to file their report about the entire chain
of events which led to the interception of the Ship and on
investigations into the matter.

The North Korean vessel dropped anchor off Hut Bay
island in the Andaman islands on August six without permission
and was detained by the coastguard after an over six-hour
chase.

The ship's 39-member crew which also includes a North
Korean government official will also be questioned at the
Kakinada port itself, official sources said.

The questioning of the crew got delayed due to
non-availability of a Korean interpreter, they said, adding
this was a unique ship where none was fluent in English. A
lady interpreter had been dispatched by Ministry of External
Affairs.

During the initial round of questioning of the Captain,
which was made possible with the help of a local interpreter
in Andaman and Nicobar Islands it emerged that the ship,
carrying 16,500 metric tonnes of sugar, was on its way to Iraq
after loading in Thailand, they said.

The Captain, who spoke in broken English, reportedly
said the ship had developed a technical snag and that he had
to change the piston besides carrying out some other
mechanical work. The crew was instructed by their handlers to
wait for fresh instructions before leaving the Indian waters.

The journey of the ship to Iraq raised suspicion among
security agencies as the US would not have hired a North
Korean ship for transporting anything to Iraq after the UN
imposed sanctions on it in June this year following conduct of
nuclear tests on May 25 this year.

The UN sanctions imposed on North Korea are tougher than
the earlier ones which include provisions for inspection of
North Korean ships in ports and on high seas, a tighter ban on
arms exports, and curbing loans and money transfers to that
country.

The track record of the ship shows that it had anchored
at Kandla port in January this year and has been frequently
sailing between China and Pakistan, the sources said, adding
the security agencies were now trying to ascertain the purpose
of its visit to India and the agents who had dealt with the
load at that time. PTI SKL
ANU
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