More North Korean Cargo Searched

South Korean authorities seized in September four cargo containers belonging to North Korea under U.N. sanctions imposed on the communist state for its defiant missile and nuclear tests, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The reported seizure at the South’s port of Busan comes at a sensitive point as Seoul and the international community attempt finely choreographed diplomacy to bring Pyongyang back to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.  [Reuters, Jack Kim]

According to the Joongang Ilbo, South Korean authorities are confirming the seizure, but they aren’t commenting on what the cargo was.  This is the first South Korean action to enforce UNSCR 1874 (see sidebar).

Meanwhile, India has detained and searched a North Korean vessel for the second time since the passage of the resolution.

The Indian Coast Guard detained a North Korean vessel for the second time in two months but gave the all-clear to the ship found anchored without permission off the Kerala coast today.

A spokesperson for the navy and the Coast Guard, Commander Roy Francis, said the Hyangro was found stationary in Indian waters when it was supposed to be sailing to Karachi, Pakistan. Coast Guard and naval personnel boarded the ship but found it was carrying no cargo.

The Hyangro was surrounded by two Coast Guard vessels and a naval warship after fishermen reported its presence to the authorities.

The captain of the ship told the investigators he had dropped anchor “because of technical problems in the ship’s tanks that were leaking”. The ship had last made port in Colombo. It is owned by the Pyongyang-based Sinhung Shipping Company.

A navy source in Delhi said later this evening that the crew of the Hyangro had been cleared after questioning. The entire crew of 44 was North Korean.  [Calcutta Telegraph]

More here.