North Korea: UAE stops ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran

The United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran in violation of a United Nations arms embargo imposed after Pyongyang's nuclear test in May, Yonhap News reported on Aug. 29 in its dispatch from New York quoting UN diplomatic sources as having said on Aug. 28.

"The UAE government has notified the U.N. Security Council sanctions committee of its seizure of a North Korean ship heading to Iran in violation of a U.N. resolution," Yonhap News quoted a diplomat as saying.

U.N. Resolution 1874, adopted after North Korea's second nuclear test in May that followed one in 2006, bans North Korea from conducting any nuclear and ballistic missile tests while imposing an overall arms embargo, financial sanctions and cargo interdiction on the high seas to prevent proliferation of North Korean conventional weapons, as well as missiles and nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.

The sanctions committee will soon convene a meeting to discuss the issue, another source said.

The seizure is the first of its kind that effectively intercepted a North Korean arms shipment since the new U.N. resolution was imposed in June, although India seized a North Korean ship off its coast earlier this month only to find no weapons aboard.

Published by Mike Hitchen,
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North Korea Iran Arms Defense UAE Sanctions