DPRK Rice Shipment Found To Contain T-55 Tank Parts

by Stephan Tawney on February 27, 2010

Really, for a headline you can’t do better than Fark:

North Korean rice shipment to the Republic of Congo found to contain a suspicious level of T-55 tank parts. Authorities tipped off by the unlikelyhood of North Korea having any extra rice to ship anywhere

On the off chance the headline hasn’t made things abundantly clear, a shipment of rice from North Korea to the Republic of Congo was found by South Africa to contain T-55 tank parts. The T-55 was a main battle tank manufactured and utilized by the Soviet Union and its Communist allies. It would be this sucker right here. These tanks also happen to be part of the military arsenals of both North Korea and the Republic of Congo.

The foreign ministry said it had reported the seizure to the UN Security Council, saying the shipment broke a UN weapons sanction against North Korea.

The report said spare parts for T-55 tanks were hidden among sacks of rice in two shipping containers.

The Republic of Congo has experienced a wave of violence recently.

Indeed. The Republic of Congo also happens to be known by human rights activists for widespread slavery and its authoritarian government under the control of Denis Sassou Nguesso, a socialist. The elections are known to be fraudulent, the media is state-owned, and, quoth Wikipedia:

Sassou Nguesso aligned the country with the Eastern Bloc and signed a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union. Over the years, Sassou had to rely more on political repression and less on patronage to maintain his dictatorship.

In other words, a prime candidate for North Korean trade in the Soviet tank industry.

North Korea, continuing to defy international will and law by pursuing nuclear weapons and oppressing its people, has been banned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from selling arms and other military equipment. The same UNSC resolutions permit nations to search suspect shipments from the DPRK.



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