Illegal weapons transfer

Reuters news agency reported that the UAE seized the weapons two weeks ago and notified the United Nations Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea.

The Australian-ownded cargo ship is reported to have been carrying grenade launchers, detonators, and munitions falsely listed as machine parts on its shipping manifesto.

A new round of UN sanctions on North Korea was approved unanimously on June 12, following a nuclear weapons test by Pyongyang and subsequent missile launches.

Arms seizure amid thaw in ties with North Korea

According to news agency AFP, US experts believe North Korea has earned hundreds of millions of dollars by exporting military technology until recent sanctions. North Korean ships have previously been intercepted as they headed to Myanmar.

The arms seizure comes in the midst of an apparent thawing of relations between North Korea and the rest of the world. In August, Pyongyang freed two US reporters who had been sentenced to 12 years in prison for "hostile acts."

It also recently reopened its doors to South Koreans to reunite with relatives on their side of the border.

And on Saturday, news agencies reported that North Korea had freed four South Korean fishermen who had been detained for almost a month.

West worried about Iran's nuclear ambitions

The news about the weapons shipment also comes at a time of heightened western concerns about Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Iran has already faced three rounds of sanctions for its nuclear program, and the UAE -- as well as other states in the region -- has long worried about its neighbor's atomic capabilities.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week threatened to extend sanctions if Tehran failed to cooperate with international efforts to rein in the country's alleged nuclear program.

Merkel said that if if the government of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to react positively to western overtures by September, sanctions in the energy and financial sector needed to be considered.

On Friday, the United Nations' nuclear agency, the IAEA, issued a report stating Iran had increased its number of centrifuges by about a thousand, to 8,308. That would allow Iran to expand its uranium enrichment capabilities.

The Vienna-based IAEA agency said that Tehran had not suspended its nuclear activities as required and was particularly alarmed by the alleged role of an unidentified foreigner who had experience with explosives.

The IAEA said the Tehran leadership was dodging the concrete issues and was only providing shallow answers and simple denials.

The IAEA report will be the main topic at a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on September 2 to discuss implementing harsher UN sanctions against Iran. The United States has set a September deadline for Iran to pressurize the Islamic state into resuming nuclear talks.

The six powers have offered a package of economic and political incentives in return for concessions on its nuclear program.

svs/nrt/dpa/Reuters/AP/AFP

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar