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Tuvalu - North Korea - Heroin Part I |
| Name: |
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D. |
| Date Posted: |
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Oct 22, 06 - 7:24 AM |
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North Korea: North Korean Ploy Masks Ships Under Other Flags
by Keith Bradsher, (20 Oct 2006)
HONG KONG -- When helicopter-borne Australian commandos stormed a freighter three years ago after it was spotted unloading 110 pounds of high-grade heroin, the ship proved to be registered in Tuvalu, a tiny island nation in the South Pacific.
When a Spanish warship stopped a freighter carrying cement to Yemen four years ago, the cargo vessel turned out to be carrying 15 Scud missiles as well and was registered in Cambodia.
The two freighters had something in common: although registered elsewhere, both were owned by North Korea.
The incidents illustrated North Korea's adroit use of so-called flags of convenience to camouflage the movement of its cargo vessels as they engage in tasks that sometimes violate international laws.
The North Korean ploy could both simplify and complicate the efforts to carry out the United Nations Security Council's resolution authorizing countries to inspect cargo entering or leaving North Korea to see if it includes illicit weapons, say shipping executives, lawyers and security experts.
The use of flags of convenience could also weaken moves like Australia's on Monday to ban North Korean-flagged vessels from its ports to protest the nuclear test.
But if Western nations suspect that a North Korean-owned vessel flying another country's flag is carrying illicit weapons, boarding the vessel could be simpler than if it carried North Korea's flag, said Jonathan D. Pollack, professor of Asian and Pacific studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
A Western nation could ask the country that registered the vessel for permission to board it even if the vessel was not entering or leaving North Korean waters. Practically any country would be more cooperative about giving permission for a search than North Korea, Mr. Pollack noted.
A North Korean crew might still resist boarding, however. The crew of the Tuvalu-registered freighter, the Pong Su, did so when chased by Australian forces for four days in 2003 before it was finally boarded and captured by the commandos.
But Mr. Pollack and other experts said that flags of convenience could still prove useful to North Korea in maintaining its arms trade despite the Security Council resolution.
One possibility would be for North Korea to try to smuggle out weapons or weapons components across its land borders with China or Russia, and then to a Chinese or Russian port. The weapons could then be loaded on a vessel secretly owned by North Korea but flying another country's flag -- and perhaps not be closely watched by Western intelligence services as a result.
Or weapons could be loaded on a North Korean ship flying its own flag, and the registration of the ship could be altered after it left port. "In the middle of the night, they could change the name and change the flag," said Gary Wolfe, a maritime lawyer at Seward & Kissel, a New York law firm.
Still another possibility, shipping and security experts said, would be for a North Korean-flagged ship to transfer cargo to a North Korean ship carrying another flag, either in port or in midocean if it were a calm day and the cargo small enough.
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