• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

U.S. to Blame for Search of DPRK Cargo Ship in Taiwan

KCNA

    Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- The Taiwanese authorities forcibly searched the DPRK-flagged trading cargo ship Pegaebong that called at Kaohsiung Port on August 7 and confiscated the cargo on board though it carried the legally allowed cargo under a normal transport agreement, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport of the DPRK answering a question put by KCNA today.
    This was a criminal act in wanton violation of international law and rules and norms governing the relations between countries that call for the provision of normal operation of trading cargo ships and an intolerable infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, he said.
    He dismissed the recent action as an expression of Taiwan's stand of supporting the U.S. hostile policy to stifle the DPRK and part of the U.S. strategy of "international blockade" against the DPRK that has already entered the phase of its implementation.
    He continued:
    The cargo is the legally allowed product in wide use in the world and reagent necessary for dressing non-ferrous metal as it is in line with the international convention on sea security, the convention on the protection of sea environment and the international regulations on cargo transport. However, the Taiwanese authorities intercepted the ship for no proper reason and confiscated the cargo. This was perpetrated under the pressure and manipulation of the U.S. which pursues a sinister political aim.
    Recalling that such incident was deliberately orchestrated by the United States in the run-up to the six-way talks, the spokesman declared:
    The United States should face up to the international trend toward peace against war and immediately stop such anachronistic criminal act of plugging its satellites into the collective "blockade operation" against the DPRK.
    The Taiwanese authorities should stop blindly following the United States and return at once the unjustly confiscated cargo, own due international responsibility for this and apologize for the incident without fail.