On North Korean Freighter, a Hidden Missile Factory

Tae Min Hun, the dour captain of the North Korean freighter Kuwolsan, glared icily from the bridge as tempers around him soared in the midday heat. On June 30, 1999, as customs agents in India’s northwestern port city of Kandla waited impatiently to board the vessel, Tae received urgent instructions from Pyongyang: At all cost, let no one open the cargo boxes. The Indians tried to look anyway, and a melee erupted. Tae and his crew rained blows on inspectors and barricaded the doors with their bodies, according to witness accounts and video footage of the encounter. A few agents who managed to slip into the cargo bay were horrified to find North Koreans sealing the hatches, trapping them inside. When the ship’s doors were finally reopened at gunpoint, the reason for the extreme secrecy became clear. Hidden inside wooden crates marked “water refinement equipment” was an assembly line for ballistic missiles: tips of nose cones, sheet metal for rocket frames, machine tools, guidance systems and, in smaller crates, ream upon ream of engineers’ drawings labeled “Scud B” and “Scud C.” The intended recipient of the cargo, according to U.S. intelligence officials, was Libya. Full Story