http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...port-says.html
North Korean Arms Were Headed to Iran, Thailand Report Says
January 30, 2010, 12:22 AM EST
By Bill Varner and Viola Gienger
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- An airport in Iran’s capital of Tehran was the intended destination for a North Korean weapons shipment seized in Bangkok on Dec. 12, according to a confidential report to the United Nations Security Council by Thailand’s government.
A copy of the report, obtained from diplomats whose governments hold Security Council seats, said the 40-ton cargo’s destination was Airport Mahrabad in Tehran. It says the plane departed from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang and that the shipper was the Korea Mechanical Industry Co....
The seizure and subsequent investigations may shed light on North Korean arms deals, a key source of foreign-currency income for the reclusive state. North Korea earns about $1.5 billion annually from missile sales, mostly to Iran via airports in China, the U.S.-based Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis said in a report this year.
Other Arms Seizures
There have been three other seizures of arms allegedly going to or from Iran in the past year. Israel intercepted a ship it said was carrying arms to Syria from Iran in November. The United Arab Emirates in August seized a ship carrying North Korean-manufactured munitions, detonators, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades bound for Iran. Another shipment of Iranian arms, also allegedly bound for Syria, was detained by Cyprus last January.
Israel believes the arms were intended to go to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the Hamas Islamic movement in the Gaza Strip, both of which are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S....