Panama says no diplomatic deal on North Korean ship that carried Cuban weapons

Posted on Monday, 08.12.13

Panama says no diplomatic deal on North Korean ship that carried Cuban
weapons
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Panama is insisting that the case of a North Korean ship carrying
contraband Cuban weapons must be handled by the United Nations despite a
soothing diplomatic note from Pyongyang, according a Panamanian
government official.

The verbal note from Pyongyang's embassy in Havana noted that the ship
did not seek to endanger the security of the Panama Canal and that North
Korea hopes for "amiable cooperation" to resolve the case
"diplomatically," the official said.

North Korea also asked in the note Friday that two of its diplomats be
allowed into Panama to provide consular services to the 35 crewmen of
the freighter Chong Chon Gang, said the official, who requested
anonymity to speak frankly about the case.

The reference to a "diplomatic" resolution of the case was not further
detailed in the verbal note, the official said. But Panama's foreign
ministry has made it clear there will be no bilateral Panama-North Korea
settlement of the case, he added.

"As long as the case is in the hands of the (Panamanian) Security
Ministry and there's no final report from the United Nations, there is
no diplomatic solution," the official told El Nuevo Herald by phone from
Panama City.

One news media report earlier Monday said that the reference to
diplomacy meant Pyongyang was suggesting removing the issue out of the
hands of the United Nations.

Panama's Security Ministry seized the freighter last month after
reportedly receiving a tip of illegal drugs aboard. Prosecutors charged
the crew with threatening the collective security of Panama by not
declaring the Cuban weapons as it prepared to cross the Canal.

A team of six U.N. Security Council experts is expected to examine the
weapons this week and later will write a report on whether they violate
a seven-year-old U.N. ban on arms transfers slapped on North Korea
because of its nuclear weapons and missile development programs.

Havana has acknowledged the Chong Chon Gang was carrying 240 tons of
"obsolete" Cuban weapons to be "repaired" and returned to Cuba,
including two MiG jets, 15 MiG engines and nine anti-aircraft missiles
and parts and two targeting radars.

The weapons were packed in 40-foot shipping containers placed at the
bottom of the cargo holds, under 220,000 sacks of brown Cuban sugar that
Panamanian officials say was loaded in a way specifically designed to
make it difficult to find the contraband.

The 25 containers have been removed from the port to a secure location
where the U.N. experts will be able to examine them, Belsio Gonzalez,
head of Panama's air and naval security services, told the Panama News
Agency.

Panamanian officials said there have been three diplomatic
communications with North Korea, all through Pyongyang's embassy in
Havana, since the freighter was forced to dock at the Manzanillo port on
Panama's Atlantic coast last month.

A first verbal communication in July requested permission for two
Pyongyang diplomats to meet with the ship's crewmen, all North Koreans,
and provide them with consular services, the government official said.
Panama initially agreed.

But the permission was withdrawn after a North Korean follow up to that
communication asked that the diplomats also participate in the
inspection of the ship, the official said. Pyongyang around the same
time also issued an "aggressive" statement alleging that Panamanian
authorities had "used violence" against the crew.

"That was not very diplomatic, so the permission was withdrawn," he added.

On July 25, Panama sent a communication to North Korea through its
embassy in Cuba that officials from the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC) had met with the crew and reported they were being
treated well.

Panama is still considering allowing the North Koreans to visit the
crew, the official said. They would fly in from Havana with an ICRC
delegation, interview the crew, inspect their quarters and then return
to Cuba.

The crewmen are being held in the social building of a base for the air
and naval security forces at Fort Sherman, a former U.S. military
installation.

Source: "Panama says no diplomatic deal on North Korean ship that
carried Cuban weapons - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com" -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/12/3558693/panama-says-no-diplomatic-deal.html