Category talk:Weapons

North Korean gas masks?
Odd story published August 27.
 * N. Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria: media – AFP, 27 August 2013 – (AFP original)


 * North Korea tried to export gas masks to Syria but they were seized in Turkey along with arms and ammunition, a Japanese daily said Tuesday.


 * A Libyan-registered vessel, identified as Al En Ti Sar, left North Korea for Syria earlier this year with the consignment, the Sankei Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources from the US military, Japanese and South Korean intelligence.


 * The vessel sailed through Dardanelles in Turkey on April 3 and was searched shortly after by Turkish authorities, who had been tipped off by the US.


 * Turkish officials seized 1,400 rifles and pistols and some 30,000 bullets as well as gas masks apparently for chemical protection.


 * US authorities believe that the ship was intending to unload its cargo in Turkey and send it overland to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Spin:
 * North Korea 'Tried To Export Gas Masks And Weapons To Assad's Regime In Syria' – Charlotte Meredith, Huffington Post UK, 27/08/2013
 * U.S. intelligence alerted Turkey to ship carrying N. Korean gas masks – WorldTribune.com, September 10th, 2013 (with photo of rebel gas masks in Jobar)

Several details do not add up:
 * If the incident happened in April 2013, why is the story published now after the Ghouta chemical attack?
 * What right of piracy do the US an its lackeys have of intercepting, visiting, and searching ships on the high seas or in international waters? (which the Dardanelles is part of)
 * If the ship was coming from North Korea as claimed, why the need to sail through the Dardanelles? (More likely they picked up some North Korean cargo in some Black Sea port.)
 * Why would a (post-Gaddafi) Libyan ship be involved in this trade within the "Axis of Evil"?
 * If the cargo was intended for Syria, why did it not just dock in Syria?
 * Are there (or where in April) any open border crossings between Turkey and Syria that would allow allow any kind of "government" cargo to pass through? (I understand the one border crossing in Latakia is under nominally under government control, but even there road passes through rebel-infested areas.)
 * Is North Korea prohibited from trading in gas masks?

I find it far more likely that this was yet another shipment of old Croatian weapons with a topping of old North Korean gas masks heading for rebels via Turkey. -- Petri Krohn (talk) 05:30, 11 September 2013 (UTC)