Suspect nuclear-related shipment to N. Korea intercepted... French ship involved...

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/we...7apr2003-6.htm

Suspect nuclear-related shipment to NKorea intercepted

The German government has intercepted a shipment of German-made aluminium tubes probably destined for use in North Korea's nuclear programme, according to a German magazine.

The weekly magazine Der Spiegel said in its issue due to be published on Monday that 22 tonnes of aluminium tubes, essential in the manufature of enriched uranium, were loaded onto a French ship in Hamburg in early April just as German federal vetoed the shipment.

The German government alerted the French authorities, who ordered the ship's captain to unload the containers in Egypt.

Officially the tubes were on their way to a Chinese aeronautics company, but according to Der Spiegel Berlin believes this company was a front for North Korea.

The German firm's business contact was a North Korean national, it said.

The paper said the head of the German company, called Optronic and which is based at Koenigsbronn in southern Germany, had been detained for questioning.

The prosecutor's office in Stuttgart confirmed it had opened an investigation into a local firm suspected of contravening foreign trade regulations, but gave no further details.

On Thursday, in the first direct high-level contact between the United States and North Korea since the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programme erupted last October, North Korea confirmed it possessed nuclear weapons.