This Ship Is Loaded

V. Sudarshan October 23, 2006 00:00 IST This Ship Is Loaded -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

Here's the complete story of how India busted North Korea's proliferation activities. It was the first sign of what Kim Jong-il's country was up to. The United States was told about it. Yet, it did nothing, chose to look the other way as North Korea and Pakistan clandestinely armed each other. Read on:

India stumbled upon North Korea's clandestine proliferation activities a month after launching attacks on Pakistani positions in Kargil. On June 25, 1999, North Korean cargo vessel MV Ku Wol San, originating from Namp'o, 50 km southwest of Pyongyang, dropped anchor off the Kandla port, Gujarat, and sought permission to offload about 13,000 tonnes of sugar it had ferried from Bangkok. A few days earlier, it had been at Mumbai, but the port authorities had said it would take a week before the vessel could dock to unload. Its skipper consequently decided to sail to Kandla where a small contingent of customs officials boarded the vessel to check its manifest. One of them glimpsed in the vessel's hold a tarpaulin sheet covering what looked...