UAE 'seizes N Korea arms cargo'

BBC News (Link) (August 28, 2009)

The United Arab Emirates has seized a ship illegally carrying embargoed North Korean weapons bound for Iran, diplomatic sources at the UN have said.

A diplomat told the AFP news agency that the UAE had informed UN officials responsible for implementing sanctions on Pyongyang.

The UK-based Financial Times reported earlier on Friday that the ship was seized "some weeks ago".

It said the armaments included rocket-propelled grenades.

The arms had been falsely labelled as "machine parts," the Financial Times reported, adding that the vessel was still being held in the UAE.

The diplomatic source told AFP that the issue was being dealt with by the UN Security Council's sanctions committee, and declined to comment further.

A new round of UN sanctions on North Korea was approved unanimously on 12 June, following a nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang and subsequent missile launches.

The UN resolution, which aimed to cut arms exports as a source of revenue for North Korea, also called for tougher inspections of air, sea and land shipments to and from the hard-line communist state.