U.N. reviews Cuban weapons shipment

Posted on Tuesday, 02.25.14

U.N. reviews Cuban weapons shipment
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

A U.N. Security Council committee has started to consider the case of a
Cuban weapons shipment bound for North Korea and intercepted in Panama,
but will need more time to reach a conclusion, according to the panel's
chairman.

"On Chong Chon Gang, we continue our discussions," said Sylvie Lucas,
Luxembourg's ambassador to the United Nations and chair of the Security
Council committee that supervises the arms embargo on North Korea.

Lucas told reporters after a committee meeting Monday that member states
had started to consider the case as part of their review of the annual
report by its panel of experts, submitted to the committee on Feb. 7.

The report includes a large section on the Chong Chon Gang, a North
Korean freighter seized by Panama in July after it was found to be
carrying 240 tons of Cuban weapons, undeclared and hidden under 10,000
tons of sugar.

The meeting Monday first considered the annual report then took up the
case of the Chong Chon Gang individually, Lucas said, according to a
recording of her comments provided to El Nuevo Herald.

"All members of the [Security] Council are very much aware, in that we
have to give a follow-up . . . to this whole incident as such, and so I
think we are quite well engaged in this respect and we'll continue
working on it," she said.

Asked whether her committee would be updating its list of persons or
entities "designated" as violators of the arms embargo and subject to
banking and travel sanctions, Lucas said that there were proposals for
some changes, but she provided few details.

"There are one or two proposals on the table, perhaps additional aliases
on some of the entities, and so on," she said. "There is more really of
trying to have the right addresses, the right coordinates, or another
alias."

Source: U.N. reviews Cuban weapons shipment - Cuba - MiamiHerald.com -
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/25/3959738/un-reviews-cuban-weapons-shipment.html