Did Kim Chong Il just blink?
A North Korean ship being tracked by the United States Navy on suspicion of transporting weapons to Burma has turned around, US officials have said.
They said they did not know where the ship was now heading, but South Korean media said it was going home.
It has been described as a known weapons trader. Burma denied any connection with it.After sailing southwards past China, the Kong Nam apparently turned around and headed back up north.
One official said it was just south of Hong Kong on Tuesday. Others noted it had started travelling very slowly, perhaps to conserve fuel.
“We’ve no idea where it’s going,” the official said. “The US didn’t do anything to make it turn around.”
Maybe. Or maybe this was one of those “test resolve” type cases.
Inscrutable, innit?
Perhaps it was a decoy mission while a lesser known ship did the job? Maybe I’m just a paranoid cynic…
Probably just confirming that we wouldn’t do anything. Seems like a wasted effort with the Apologist In Chief making the decisions
Maybe it has a nuke on board and is heading near the east coast of Taiwan for the 4th… The plot thickens.
This smells more like it was sourced in Beijing than Washington.
Couldn’t find a version of the story earlier, but the Washington Post is repeating reports that there’s still a lot of uncertainty in Pyongyang over who will succeed Dear Leader. No doubt Beijing is deeply involved in shaping the future of the NorKs.
Maybe the ship was a decoy, and KJI hoped that we would board the ship and find something benign. After we were embarrased, we’d be reluctant to do it again.