Security & Strategic Review - October 2013 (ISSN 1741-4202)

PANAMA | ‘Big deal behind Korean ship’s cargo’. The hidden cargo of the North Korean container ship Chong Chon Gang, arrested in Panama last July [SSR-13-07] was not, as the Cuban government had claimed, obsolete military equipment being sent to North Korea to be repaired and then returned, but relatively new hardware. One of the two Mig-21s was found to have been flown until recently and 10 of the 15 jet engines were in prime condition and the guidance system for anti-aircraft missile defence was certainly not obsolete. The Panamanian authorities say that ‘friends’ abroad had informed them that this shipment was part of a big arms deal negotiated last June in Havana by General Kim Kyok Sik, a former defence minister who served as chief of staff of the Korean People’s Army until August.