Via One Free Korea comes this update on the ship detained by UAE authorities that was caught carrying weapons from North Korea to Iran:

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates recently seized a shipment of military hardware from North Korea aboard a vessel bound for Iran, according to people familiar with the seizure.

The seizure could fuel efforts by the U.S. and other Western powers to push for greater economic sanctions against Tehran, if diplomatic outreach fails.

The equipment included detonators and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenade launchers, according to a diplomat to the United Nations Security Council, but no nuclear-related material.

Their purchase by Iran would violate new U.N. sanctions imposed against North Korea in response to Pyongyang’s test of a nuclear device in May. They would have been legal under earlier sanctions regimes.

According to the Security Council diplomat, the weapons were carried on an Australian vessel, the ANL-Australia, which was flying under a Bahamian flag. According to an Aug. 14 letter sent to the U.N. sanctions committee, the exporting company was an Italian shipper, Otim, which exported the items from its Shanghai office.

“The cargo manifest said the shipment contained oil-boring machines, but then you opened it up and there were these items,” the diplomat said. ANL and Otim officials couldn’t immediately be reached to comment.  [Wall Street Journal]

Make sure to read the rest of the article for more details.  This story is now beginning to make more sense.  The North Koreans were using an Australian ship to move weapons to Iran with a inaccurate manifest of what was in the containers.  That explains why the ship stopped in UAE instead of going straight to Iran because it probably had to drop off some legitimate cargo containers there before moving on to Iran.  Needless to say the Australian government is not very happy about this recent news.

The big story in this incident is now the detonators.  Are these detonators that could be used in roadside bombs in Iraq? About a month ago it was reported that a federal investigation of a Singapore company Corezing International was underway in order to determine who they purchased radio controlled detonators from to send to Iran.  Was North Korea involved and if not could the Iranians have been looking for other sources of detonators through North Korea if the Corezing International flow was stopped?

Here is something else I am wondering, this detainment happened a month ago, why was it kept under wraps for so long?  Was this being kept quiet in anticipation of the US reporters release from North Korea?  Finally who leaked this story to the media?  Lots of questions and hopefully we will get more answers as people continue to investigate this story.