Thursday, December 18, 2014

Will Cuba's New Ties to the U.S. Mean It Will Sever Links to North Korea?

Yes, North Korea (emphases in the original):
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.

According to the ruling, “North Korea provided Hezbollah with advanced weapons, expert advice and construction assistance in hiding these weapons in underground bunkers, and training in utilizing these weapons and bunkers to cause terrorist rocket attacks on Israel’s civilian population.

Arms sales continues to be one of the Kim regime's top revenue sources. The question remains: where does it get the weapons from?

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, included surface-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 other North Korean vessels that made similarly elusive trips (as the Chong Chon Gang) to Cuban in the last few years.

Regardless, this is another reason why Cuban officials and entities responsible arms trafficking with North Korea must face consequences for their illegal actions.
Apparently, the "consequences" are really good ones--American businesses rushing to make deals with Havana and American touristas flooding to Cuba's sandy white beaches.

Hey, maybe they can close Gitmo and turn it into a Club Med.

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