In a bizarre incident Panamanian authorities seized a North Korean ship as it attempted to travel through the Panama Canal with missile equipment hidden under 10,000 tons of Cuban sugar, according to Reuters.
The ship was stopped last week and a confrontation occurred between the North Koreans on the ship and the Panamanian authorities although few details are available. Panama's security minister, Jose Raul Mulino, said that the crew had attempted to sabotage the ship and that the confrontation was "violent," according to CNN.
The ship refused to pull up its anchor and it had to be cut. Bizarrely the captain of the ship appeared to have a heart attack and then tried to slit his own throat. When the ship was examined Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli went along for the inspection, according to CNN.
"We found containers which presumably contain sophisticated missile equipment. That is not allowed," Martinelli said on local radio. "The Panama canal is a canal of peace, not war."
Cuban officials issued a statement explaining that the shipment is of old and "obsolete" weapons that needed to be repaired. There are at least 240 tons of Russian-made weapons on board the North Korean ship including two anti-aircraft missile systems, nine missiles and two MiG-21 jets, reports CNN.
"We are talking about really old stuff - that technology was designed in the 1940s and 50s," James O'Halloran, a weapons expert, told CNN. "Very few countries still employ the SA-2 system as a frontline defensive weapon."
"Today there is no reason for any Western pilot to be hit by an SA-2 - if you get caught by one of them, you've done something bloody stupid, or you've got very bad luck," O'Halloran continued. "No modern country wants to be seen with those."
Countries like Cuba are mostly unable to obtain new weapons systems because of the prohibitive cost as well as various embargoes and sanctions. Mike Ellemann, Senior Fellow for Regional Security Cooperation at IISS, explained the situation to CNN.
"If you buy a new weapons system, you also have to buy the hardware and the training, which can take a year or more if you buy some of the more modern air defense systems that the Russians sell," Ellemann said. "And the Cubans don't have the money."
The only option that Cuba has is to have their outdated weapons repaired. Some in the U.S. government saw the event as something more troubling, perhaps something on par with a second Cuban missile crisis with the North Koreans playing the part of the Soviets.
"This is a country which is just 90 miles away from American shores," Gordon Chang, a columnist for Forbes, said on CNN. "Now, if they can smuggle missile radar into Cuba, you know, God knows what else they can put there. We do not need a replay of the Cuban missile crisis, this time with the North Korean's fingers on the triggers instead of the Soviets."
Experts believe that the Cuban sugar, which now has to be unloaded from the ship by hand because of the sabotage done by the ship's crew, was in payment for the weapons repairs.
"This will be much ado about nothing, except telling the world just how bad of shape Cuba and North Korea are in today - bartering early Cold War materials for sugar, that speaks volumes," Ellemann said.
