Panama calls in U.N. to inspect North Korean arms ship

By Lomi Kriel

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama said on Wednesday it had called in the United Nations Security Council to investigate a North Korean ship caught smuggling arms from Cuba, piling more pressure on Pyongyang for a possible breach of U.N. sanctions.

Panamanian Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said his government had asked the United Nations to advise on the case and that Panama aimed to hand over the ship, the Chong Chon Gang, and its contents to U.N. representatives.

"It's going to be transferred to the U.N. Security Council, they will decide what to do," Mulino said in Panama City.

Panama stopped the ship last week and seized the cargo after a stand-off with the North Korean crew in which the captain tried to slit his own throat. Authorities discovered missile equipment and arms on board that Cuba said were "obsolete" Soviet-era weapons being sent to North Korea for repair.

The incident did not derail U.S.-Cuban talks on migration, but U.S. officials said Washington would raise the issue of the ship with Cuba very soon. One senior U.S. lawmaker called the matter a "grave violation of international treaties."

The United Nations has imposed various sanctions on Pyongyang, including strict regulations on arms shipments, for flouting measures aimed at curbing its nuclear weapons program.

Around 350 police and border patrol officials were combing through the ship in Panama. Mulino said two more containers with suspected arms had been found in addition to the two already discovered. He added that Panama had not spoken to North Korea.

"We have no relationship with them," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Britain's U.N. Ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said the ship appeared to have violated a U.N. arms embargo on North Korea. Britain is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

There is an eight-member panel of experts appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to monitor the Security Council sanctions imposed on North Korea.

The experts are mandated to "gather, examine and analyze information from States, relevant United Nations bodies and other interested parties" on allegations of sanctions violations and report back to the 15-member Security Council.

Panama had asked the United States for technical assistance on the matter, which would be provided, said Marie Harf, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department. She added that Washington would be talking to Cuba "very soon" about the ship.

CREW TIGHT-LIPPED

According to Cuba, the weapons on the ship included two anti-aircraft missile batteries, nine disassembled rockets, two MiG-21 fighter jets, and 15 MiG-21 engines, all Soviet-era military weaponry built in the middle of the last century.

Cuba said the arms were being sent to North Korea for repair, though servicing weapons would also be in breach of the arms embargo imposed on North Korea sanctions.

A U.N. resolution adopted in 2009 says the embargo applies to "all arms and related materiel, as well as to financial transactions, technical training, advice, services or assistance related to the provision, manufacture, maintenance or use of such arms, except for small arms and light weapons."

The Obama administration went ahead on Wednesday with scheduled migration talks with Havana. Though the United States believes Cuba broke U.N. sanctions, the talks went ahead because the two issues were deemed to be "apples and oranges," a State Department official said.

U.S. Democratic lawmaker Robert Menendez, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement condemning Cuba, saying it needed very careful monitoring.

"The shipment ... is a grave violation of international treaties," he said. "Weapons transfers from one communist regime to another hidden under sacks of sugar are not accidental ... and reinforces the necessity that Cuba remain on the State Department's list of countries that sponsor state terrorism."

Hal Klepak, a history professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, said Cuba was "using weapons and equipment of staggeringly old vintage" and that the Pentagon had long since written off the island as a military threat.

Since Cuba's military doctrine was designed to deter any attack, it needs to maintain the arms it has, he added.

"Cuba cannot afford to buy anything newer and does not have repair facilities of its own for such needs. Thus if it is not to scrap, for example, the aircraft entirely, it must repair and potentially update them in some areas," Klepak said.

Panama's security minister Mulino said the 35 detained crew members of the ship were likely to be charged with crimes against Panama's internal security. Panama had attempted to question the crew, but they have not been cooperating, he added.

"They are very reluctant to speak," Mulino said, adding that investigations of the ship could last four more days.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter, Louis Charbonneau, David Adams, Paul Eckert, Marc Frank and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Todd Benson and Claudia Parsons)

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