Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Mexico: North Korea wants its rust bucket back

Remember the Mu Du Bong? It ran aground last year nine miles off Veracruz after stopping in Havana.

Oh! That rustbucket!

Now North Korea wants it back, claiming that it’s “a revolutionary historic site”

because it had been visited by members of regime leader Kim Jong Un’s family.

You can’t make this up if you try.

Nothing in the report shows whether the ship is seaworthy enough for the long trip to North Korea, but you can bet the new crew will do their darnedest:

“If the crew cannot bring home the ship, the relevant officials are sure to be punished.”

Usually that means the summary execution of the men, and most likely the death/life imprisonment of their relatives.

The Mu Du Bong and the Chon Chong Gang have the same commercial agent, Ocean Maritime Management Company.

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Is North Korea Selling (Cuban) Arms to Hamas?

Interesting question from Capitol Hill Cubans:

Is North Korea Selling (Cuban) Arms to Hamas?

 According to the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, Hamas militants are attempting to negotiate an arms deal with North Korea for missiles and communications equipment that will allow them to maintain their offensive against Israel.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, a U.S. federal court ruled that North Korea provided rocket and missile components for Hezbollah to use in its 2006 attacks against Israel.
. . .

Last year, the Cuban regime was caught red-handed smuggling 240 tons of weapons to North Korea. This constituted the largest amount of arms and related materiel interdicted to or from North Korea since the adoption of resolution 1718 (2006).

The interdicted shipment, aboard the Chong Chon Gang, includedsurface-to-air missile systems (that can take down planes), missile components, ammunition, radars and other miscellaneous arms-related materiel.

What if these missile systems had ended up in the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah?

Other Cuban weaponry may have, as there were at least seven otherNorth Korean vessels that made similarly elusive trips (as the Chong Chon Gang) to Cuban in the last few years.

Most recently, the Mu Du Bong

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Cuba-North Korea: Another weapons cargo?

Remember the Chong Chon Gang, the North Korean rust bucket caught by the Panamenians carrying attack planes and armaments?

Now there’s the Mu Du Bong!

(No, I did not make up that name.)

Was North Korean rustbucket stuck on Mexico reef sent to smuggle Cuba arms?
North Korean vessel aground on Mexican reef has similarities to one impounded in Panama

A North Korean freighter has run aground in the Gulf of Mexico just days after a stop in Havana that sparked comparisons with another Pyongyang vessel captured last summer with an illegal shipment of Cuban weapons.

The 130-metre Mu Du Bong grounded on a reef about 11km from the Mexican port of Tuxpan, according to shipping officials. The task of pulling it off the reef would be complicated and take several days, they said.

And, of course, the Mu Du Bong and the Chong Chon Gang share another feature (aside from the same commercial agent, Ocean Maritime Management Company, and the same penurious lack of maintenance),

Both freighters sailed in Cuba waters but their exact locations were a mystery for several days because there were no reports from their automatic location beacons, required by safety regulations. The Chong Chon Gang turned off its beacon to hide its locations, UN investigators found later.

The real answer is that we won’t know what the Mu Du Bong is carrying until the ship is inspected.

Nothing to see here . . .


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