The story is dramatic. The North Korean 14,000 dwt bulk carrier Chong Chon Gang was stopped by the Panama Canal Authority. A container, believed to carry undeclared military weapons was found hidden in a cargo of bagged sugar. The Korean crew of the ship allegedly violently resisted the Panamanian searchers. The captain of the Korean ship was reported to have attempted suicide when the ship was boarded.

Initially, this story sounds reasonably predictable. North Korea has been caught repeatedly smuggling arms and narcotics in recent years. The case of the Chong Chon Gang, however, quickly get strange. The ship, when arrested, had not come from North Korea, but from Cuba, and the military equipment found aboard was odd. As reported by the New York Times, “Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying the cargo stashed in the vessel, the Chong Chon Gang, consisted of “240 metric tons of obsolete defensive weapons” bound for North Korea, where it was to be repaired and then sent back to Cuba.” They described the equipment as ““two anti-aircraft missile complexes Volga and Pechora, nine missiles in parts and spares, two Mig-21 Bis and 15 motors for this type of airplane, all of it manufactured in the mid-twentieth century”.

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