South Africa reports seizing NKorea tank parts being exported in violation of sanctions

South Africa reports NKorea sanctions violation

UNITED NATIONS — South Africa sent a report to a U.N. committee saying it confiscated a shipment of North Korean tank parts hidden among sacks of rice being sent to the Republic of Congo in violation of U.N. sanctions.

In the letter obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, the South Africans said the two containers are currently stored in a state-secured warehouse in Durban while their investigation continues.

The U.N. Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea last June, expanding an arms embargo to ban the North from exporting all weapons and authorizing ship searches on the high seas to try to rein in its nuclear program.

The resolution was adopted after Pyongyang’s second nuclear test in 2009, which violated a council resolution adopted after its first blast in 2006.