Chinese, Australian ships involved in transport of seized N. Korean cargo

ROME/DUBAI, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korean cargo carrying arms exports to Iran
left a western port five days after Pyongyang's nuclear test in May and was
transferred aboard Chinese and Australian freighters before being seized by the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) in July, according to an Italian company that handled
the delivery.
Mario Carniglia, head of the international freight-forwarding firm Otim, said the
containers, reportedly loaded with rocket launchers, detonators, and munitions,
were shipped via the Chinese cities of Dalian and Shanghai and were transferred
to an Australian vessel just after the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution
1874 which bans the North from engaging in arms trade.
"(The containers) left the Nampo Port on May 30," he said in a recent interview
with Yonhap News Agency in Rome on Wednesday. A North Korean ship carrying the 10
containers arrived in Dalian two days later and a Chinese cargo ship moved them
to Shanghai on June 13, he said.
"The containers were placed on (the Australian freighter) ANL-Australia in
Shanghai," he said, flipping through related documents.
The cargo was on its scheduled course until the UAE intercepted the ANL-Australia
on July 22. The U.S. Navy had been focusing on trailing another North Korean
vessel, the Kangnam 1, which appeared to be headed to Myanmar also carrying
weapons exports.
The seizure was the first made under Resolution 1874 that calls upon all states
to inspect cargo to and from North Korea if they have "information that provides
reasonable grounds to believe the cargo contains" illicit weapons.
The Australian government said earlier, based on its own probe, that there were
rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons in the seized containers, though
Carniglia said his firm did not know the contents of the cargo.
He said North Korea provided documents identifying the content as "Oil Pumping
Equipment."
"We couldn't see the contents as the containers were sealed when shipped from
Nampo," he said in the interview conducted in Italian. He refused to identify the
exporter in North Korea, citing business ethics.
"All we were responsible for was handling the shipping from China to Iran,"
Carniglia said.
He added that North Korea has not filed a complaint or asked for the return of
the cargo, held at the UAE now for more than 50 days.
The UAE is reportedly in consultation with the U.N. sanctions committee on how to
handle the seized shipment.
In a related move, the U.N. committee demanded an explanation from North Korea
last month for the apparent arms export attempt.
The head of the North's mission to the U.N., Sin Son-ho, sent a reply letter
reiterating his country's position that it is not bound by any U.N. resolution.
Sin also said that North Korea's experimental uranium enrichment program is in a
"completion phase," claiming the country has made advancements in mastering an
alternative route to producing nuclear weapons apart from its plutonium-based
program.
(END)