North Korea caught ‘smuggling missiles’ in Panama Canal
ROGUE state North Korea has sparked a fresh missile scare after one of its ships was caught trying to sneak "sophisticated" weapons in a shipment of sugar.
Coastguards in the Panama canal made the incredible find of "undeclared weapons of war" hidden among a shipment of brown sugar coming from Communist Cuba.
The captain of the ship then tried to kill himself during the dramatic incident - rather than face punishment in Panama or possibly from North Korean dictator Kim Jong un.
Violence broke out among the 35-strong crew as the North Korean-flagged ship was raided.
Panama's president Ricardo Martinelli then posted a photograph of the cargo on his Twitter account saying: "The world needs to sit up and take note: you cannot go around shipping undeclared weapons of war through the Panama Canal".
Reports claimed the photo showed an anti-ship missile.
The seizure will raise fears that Kim Jong Un is going ahead with nuclear missile plans.
Earlier this year he threatened to launch strikes at the US and South Korea.
Martinelli told Radio Panama: "We had suspected this ship, which was coming from Cuba and headed to North Korea, might have drugs aboard so it was brought into port for search and inspection.
"When we started to unload the shipment of sugar we located containers that we believe to be sophisticated missile equipment, and that is not allowed."
The missile find comes as South Korea also accused the North Korean regime of launching a series cyber attacks against them.
The ship is currently being held by the Panama authorities, but North Korea is yet to respond to its seizure.
North Korea defiantly carried out its third nuclear weapons test in February and threatened to attack the United States in the most aggressive act yet by the leader Kim Jong-Un.
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