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Drug freighter meets spectacular end

Sydney Morning Herald, March 23, 2006

The North Korean heroin smuggling ship Pong Su has been sunk off the NSW coast by a bomb dropped from an RAAF F-111 jet fighter. The 3,500-tonne freighter, which was used to import 150kg of heroin into Australia, was sent to the bottom of the ocean 140km off the the NSW south coast in a military exercise this morning.

Australian Federal Police confirmed the ship was sunk after the RAAF completed safety checks and cleared the area. The freighter was towed out of Sydney Harbour on Tuesday, where it had been berthed since it was seized three years ago after a four-day chase by Australian soldiers, federal police and customs officers.

The Pong Su was intercepted off the NSW Central Coast in April 2003 after dropping off a cargo of drugs on the coast of Victoria. "After Navy towed the Pong Su from Sydney Harbour, the vessel was sunk approximately 140 kilometres off Jervis Bay in deep water using two 2000-pound high explosive laser guided bombs as part of an exercise involving four RAAF F-111 strike aircraft," said a department of defence statement.

"The activity provided the Air Force with significant training value for maritime strike operations. These types of opportunities are rare and allow Orion and F-111 aircrew to train against a realistic target."

Earlier this month, four Pong Su officers accused of aiding and abetting the importation of heroin were acquitted and released. However four other men involved in the operation earlier pleaded guilty and two have been jailed.

The Pong Su has been costing Australian taxpayers about $2,500 a day to maintain, while the taxpayer-funded defence of the four ship's officers has been estimated at up to $3 million.

AFP commander Frank Prendergast said the sinking of the ship showed the police's resolve to fight drugs. "The AFP is committed to working with its partner agencies to disrupt organised importation or drugs and protect the community from the devastating effects of the illegal drug trade," he said in a statement.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty later sent a warning to drug criminals who sought to breach Australia's borders. "... We will seize the profits of those activities and we will deal with the vessel or whatever is used to bring the heroin to Australia ... in an appropriate way," Mr Keelty said. "The sinking of the vessel [Pong Su] is a clear international indication that Australia and certainly the AFP take this very seriously." AAP

PONGSU CASE EXPOSES US "LIES AND DECEPTION"

DPRK Permanent Mission to the UN Press Release, KCNA, 14 March 2006

The United States, a past master at lies and deception, is now suffering bitter shame before the international community for a series of conspiratorial plots hatched by it recently. This is proved by the recently announced results of the final investigation into the case of the ship "Pongsu", a trading cargo ship of the DPRK.

As already known, the US hard-line conservatives who launched an invasion of Iraq under the pretext of "eliminating weapons of mass destruction (WMD)" in March 2003 kicked off an anti-DPRK smear campaign over the "issue of drug trafficking" in April of the same year. As part of the campaign they instigated some dishonest forces of Australia to commit such a piratical act as impounding the ship "Pongsu" and its crew engaged in normal trade on the groundless charge that they were directly involved in the "drug trafficking".

Even before an investigation into the case began, the USA instigated reptile media to build public opinion critical of the DPRK, charging that the north Korean authorities were involved in the case, pursuant to its policy. Meanwhile, the US Department of State in an annual "international narcotics control and strategy report" described the case of the ship "Pongsu" as a "state-sponsored drug trafficking case" which drew world attention.

It published such a "report" on March 1, too, in a bid to restart the campaign of criticism and pressure against the DPRK, asserting that there was possible state involvement in the drug trafficking and a trial of the master and other senior crewmen would be held soon. But on March 5, a few days later, the High Court of Australia declared the crewmen of the ship not guilty and set all of them free. This brought to light the deceptive nature of the USA and the true picture of its burlesque against the DPRK. As the results of the case of the ship "Pongsu" showed, truth is bound to be discerned from a lie.

No sooner had this case occurred than the DPRK strongly protested against the fabrication of the case, stating that it is not a simple drug matter but a political plot hatched by the USA and its allies in a premeditated and deliberate manner to do harm to the DPRK and stifle it over its nuclear issue. The USA, however, has escalated its smear campaign to label the DPRK a "criminal state". This is evidenced by the US loudmouthed story about the DPRK's "issue of counterfeit notes", "fake cigarette smuggling" and the like. No matter how desperately the USA may try to label the DPRK an "illegal state" under this or that charge, it can never deceive the world.

The socialist system in the DPRK, which aspires after justice and truth and holds man dearest strictly bans misuse of narcotics and their trafficking and such things as "the issue of counterfeit notes", prompted by its intrinsic nature.

The fiction of "the development of weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq and the case of the ship "Pongsu" convinced the international community that all the "criminal cases" much touted by the USA were nothing but charades aimed to hoodwink the world. Misuse of narcotics and their trafficking, the issue of counterfeit notes and other crimes are chronic evils that have long plagued the American society. The DPRK remains unfazed at the US base smear campaign as the DPRK's line and policies are very just and it is upright in everything.

The DPRK is sure to triumph just as truth is bound to prevail over a lie. The above-said case inflicted not small damage upon the DPRK's ship and its crewmen. The USA should make a formal apology and compensation for its piratical act and political swindle. And it should stop at once all its farces intended to mislead the international community. This is the only right way of getting rid of the deplorable situation where it is censured by the international community.

Questions over North Korea and Pong Su

09/03/06 AAP

A question mark remains over what North Korea knew about a ship used to import 250kg of heroin into Australia, Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says. The 3,500-tonne North Korean Pong Su has been berthed in Sydney since it was seized in April, 2003 after a four-day chase by Australian military, federal police and customs officers.

Last week, a Victorian Supreme Court jury found four officers of the ship not guilty of aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. Four other crewman had already been found guilty. The ship is to be destroyed.

Mr Keelty said there were still questions over North Korea's involvement in the saga. "There was a political officer on board. A ship like that, of that size and capacity, delivering 250kg of heroin just doesn't happen by accident," he told ABC TV.

"There was a political officer on board travelling on a political passport, who was a member of the Korean workers' party. "There has to be some question marks about the knowledge or otherwise of the North Korean government in that shipment of the heroin that came here."

Questions remain over Pong Su: Keelty

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says questions remain about the involvement of the North Korean Government in the importation of heroin in the vessel Pong Su. Eight people were charged over the April 2003 importation of $168 million worth of heroin, which landed on the Victorian coast. It was off-loaded from the Pong Su, which is registered in North Korea. Four of the accused, including the ship's captain and a political secretary, were last week found not guilty of aiding the importation.

 
Commissioner Keelty has told ABC TV's Lateline program that he accepts the verdict but his suspicions remain. "Delivering 250 kilos of heroin just doesn't happen by accident," he said. "There was a political officer on board travelling on a political passport who was a member of the Korean Workers Party. "There has to be some question marks about the knowledge or otherwise of the North Korean Government in that shipment of the heroin that came here."

Heroin ship's 'cheated' captain vows to return

By Fergus Shiel, March 9, 2006

THE captain of the North Korean drug-running freighter Pong Su flew out of Melbourne with three crew members yesterday, promising to return once more by sea. Captain Man Sun Song and the three other officers of the cargo ship acquitted of helping to import heroin worth more than $160 million into Australia left on a 5pm flight to Singapore.

The men were found not guilty of involvement in the importation of 125 kilograms of heroin near Lorne on the night of April 15, 2003. The heroin was alleged to have been brought to shore from the Pong Su by dinghy.

Captain Song said he was happy to be returning home after three years behind bars but he did not know what to expect on his arrival. He said: "Yes, I am happy. I will have to go and check out (home). I certainly will come back to Australia as the captain of a vessel."

Captain Song, 65, was accompanied by the Pong Su's political secretary Dong Song Choi, 61, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, both 51. Speaking through an interpreter, Captain Song said he had been the victim of an unknown drug smuggling syndicate. "I was actually forced to spend three years in prison because we were cheated by this drug-smuggling organisation somewhere in South-East Asia," he said.

The interpreter, North Korean academic Professor Ju Song Kim, said the men had wanted to leave Australia immediately but their departure was delayed because their seamen's passports had expired.

Professor Kim, who has spent the past nine months here interpreting for the men on behalf of the Pong Su shipping company, said all the men had wives and children waiting for them at home.

He said the case against the men was viewed with great scepticism in North Korea, where it was thought to have been "cooked up" to harm the country's reputation. "None of the men speak English and they don't even know the word for heroin. They can't even pronounce it properly. Most (North) Korean people would simply think of narcotics as some sort of poisonous drugs."

Vital evidence kept from jury on Pong Su drug run

North Korea's links to a heroin run were not presented in court, writes Carmel Egan
March 07, 2006

ONE of the great unsolved mysteries of the Pong Su drug trafficking saga is why the smugglers chose to take their 150kg shipment of pure heroin ashore at the worst possible time -- in treacherous seas and gale-force winds off the rocky southwest Victorian coast.

Federal agents admit that had the traffickers aboard the Pong Su, a cargo freighter owned by the communist government of North Korea, chosen a calmer night, the 2003 drug run might not have gone so wrong. "The spot they picked on a calm day would probably have been OK," said AFP agent Damien Appleby. But it was April 15. And for loyal North Korean citizens, that is a day that must be marked appropriately -- to honour the birthday of late president and "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung.

While four men pleaded guilty to their role in the heroin mission, the captain of the ship and its political officer were among the crew members who walked free from court this week. But the jury who found them not guilty were never allowed to fully consider the ship's links to the North Korean Government, with long connections to international drug trafficking.

On that night in 2003, Agent Appleby received a call from the Korean interpreter eavesdropping on two suspected heroin traffickers about to rendezvous with the drug ship. "They are talking about it being tonight ... it can't be cancelled."

"You could see the huge surf. I turned to the driver, Steve Meagher, and said 'They're going to be killed'," Appleby said. The following morning, just as predicted, Agent Meagher found the body of one of the drug traffickers entangled in brown kelp. The Pong Su was circling offshore nearby and the dead man's partner, Ta Song Wong, was hiding in bushes as police sealed off the beach.

His capture the next day gave police mobile telephone numbers, SIM cards and a global positioning device that linked Wong and his shore-based accomplices to an international drug syndicate in South East Asia -- and proved, police believed, the complicity of the North Korean Government.

The breakthrough in the case was a tip-off that came eight days earlier. They were told to look out for a man named Kiam Fah Teng. Teng had arrived in Australia on March 27 from Beijing with another member of the shore-party, Yau Kim Lam. Teng was the logistics officer sent by the drug ring to hire vehicles, organise accommodation and smooth the way for the man who would distribute the drugs in Sydney and Melbourne.

Lam was the communications man. Teng eventually met up with the third member of the shore party, Wee Quay Tan. Tan was an experienced international drug runner with a conviction for trafficking heroin in Europe.

Teng, Tan, Lam and Wong would all eventually plead guilty to aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin. Teng received a 22-year sentence, Lam got 23 years. Wong and Tan are yet to be sentenced.

But the story of how the AFP busted the Pong Su was suppressed until a verdict was handed down in the seven-month trial of the ship's captain, Man Sun Song, political officer Dong Song Choi, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri.

On Sunday the Supreme Court jury found all four innocent. For the AFP, the failure to convict the senior officers was a significant blow. Vital evidence exploring the North Korean Government's history of international drug smuggling was not allowed to be presented to the jury, including testimony from two North Korean defectors. And the jury heard nothing about a direct radio communication between the ship and North Korea.

N Koreans planned fight over $165m drug cargo

Keith Moor, 06 Mar 2006

A NORTH Korean official ordered the crew on the Pong Su heroin ship to stop and fight to avoid capture in Australia. Radio messages seized by Australian Federal Police reveal the battle order was made as the Pong Su was being chased up the Victorian coast. The Pong Su sent a message back to North Korea saying: "As a soldier for the greatest general we are determined to fight to the last man."

It had just brought 150kg of heroin worth $165 million to Boggaley Creek, near Lorne – which is still one of the nation's largest heroin busts. The Pong Su refused AFP orders to stop fleeing and allow police to board it, saying it would seek advice from the North Korean Government first.

Prominent US experts on North Korea later gave evidence that they had no doubt the North Korean Government of communist dictator Kim Jong-il was involved in the Pong Su drug importation.

Faced with the might of Australian warship HMAS Stuart, the Pong Su eventually surrendered after a four-day pursuit finished north of Sydney in April 2003.

A Supreme Court jury of six men and six women deliberated for 10 days before yesterday finding Pong Su captain Man Sun Song, 65, political secretary Dong Song Choi, 61, chief mate Man Jin Ri, 51, and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, 51, not guilty of being involved in the heroin shipment.

The four walked free from court yesterday after nearly three years in custody and are expected to return to North Korea within days. Guilty pleas by four other men over the 150kg Pong Su heroin shipment were suppressed until yesterday. The ending of the seven-month Pong Su trial has allowed The Courier-Mail to reveal the North Korean battle order.

AFP agent Damien Appleby, who was in charge of the Pong Su investigation, said radio messages showed some on board were determined not to be captured in Australia. "A lot of the stuff on the vessel talked about Australia as the enemy," he said. "They talked about fighting to the death in their messages back to the homeland on short-wave radio.

"So that's the sort of message they are sending back to people in North Korea, that they are going to fight to the death to the last man. "We didn't know that prior to boarding the Pong Su, so thank heavens we used an Australian warship and defence forces to do so."

The lifting of suppression orders yesterday has also enabled us to report the guilty plea of Ta Song Wong, 40, who used a small rubber dingy to take 150kg of heroin off the Pong Su near Lorne late on April 15 or early April 16, 2003. A man who left the Pong Su in the dingy with Wong drowned when it capsized and he has still not been identified.

Details of the three men who took delivery of the heroin at Boggaley Creek, on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast, were also suppressed until yesterday. Shore party members Yau Kim Lam, 35, Kiam Fah Teng, 48, and Wee Quay Tan, 35, each pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the Pong Su heroin importation.

Supreme Court judge Murray Kellam jailed Lam for 23 years, with a non-parole period of 16 years, and sentenced Teng to 22 years with a minimum of 15. In sentencing Lam and Teng, Justice Kellam said it was the largest importation detected in Victoria and one of the largest in Australia. Justice Kellam warned people tempted to import heroin into Australia, with its large coastline, that when detected "they will suffer a heavy penalty for their greed". The other two members of the Pong Su drug smuggling operation are yet to be sentenced.

Crown Prosecutor John Champion, SC, told the court that political secretary Mr Choi was representing the North Korean Government and that it was inconceivable that he didn't sanction and approve the Pong Su heroin smuggling operation. He said Choi was likely to have been from a North Korean Government intelligence service and was probably the highest-ranking person on board.

"As such, it is to be inferred that this defendant must have had a thorough knowledge of events happening on board this ship and the circumstances of all those on board," Mr Champion said. "He could not have failed to know that the ship was carrying an illicit cargo, and further, that the illicit cargo was a narcotic in nature."

Mr Choi's barrister, John O'Sullivan, chose not to call any witnesses and Mr Choi did not give evidence. Chief mate Mr Ri's lawyer, Nick Papas, didn't call any evidence on behalf of his client. Lawyers for Pong Su captain, Mr Song, and chief engineer, Mr Ri, said their clients had no knowledge of there being heroin on board.

Captain Song told the court the two men who left the Pong Su in a dingy at Boggaley Creek were not Pong Su crew members. He said they were representatives of a Malaysian company which chartered the Pong Su to sail to Melbourne to pick up a cargo of luxury cars.

Captain Song told the court he stopped the Pong Su at Boggaley Creek at the request of the charterers and was told by them that a luxury car contract had been cancelled. He said he did not see the men leave in the dinghy and did not know about the heroin. "As far as he was concerned he was following a legitimate voyage under instructions from these charterers," Captain Song's lawyer, Ian Hayden, told the court.

Mr Ri told the court the Pong Su had stopped so close to shore at Boggaley Creek because he needed to change a cylinder head on the engine.

Two eminent US experts on North Korea, Balbina Hwang and Joe Bermudez, gave written and verbal evidence during the Pong Su trial – but the judge ruled the jury was not allowed to hear it. The evidence of both was that they had no doubt the North Korean Government was involved in the Pong Su heroin importation.

They revealed the North Korean Government had created a secretive department, known as Bureau 39, to control and enlarge the inflow of foreign exchange through legal and illegal imports. "Its officials are involved in heroin and amphetamine trafficking that generates as much as $500 million annually," Ms Hwang said.

Mr Bermudez said he had spent 30 years studying North Korea, had written five books on the topic and had access to classified information and government and intelligence officials in Asia, the US and Britain. He said the North Korean government would have to have been aware the Pong Su was carrying heroin. "It would have to be sanctioned by the North Korean government," he told the court in the absence of the jury.

"The Pong Su could not have left North Korea without the official sanction of the Korean Workers' Party and the government. "It's most probable that the Pong Su Shipping Company, employing the Pong Su, was a front company established by the Korean Workers' Party at the behest of Bureau 39 to co-ordinate the delivery of narcotics to Australia." Mr Bermudez said Bureau 39 was under the direct control of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and that the Pong Su's political secretary would have been reporting back to it.

Australian-based Korean affairs expert Dr Adrian Buzo also gave evidence that it was his belief that the Pong Su was owned by the North Korean government and was under its direct control.

Federal agent Appleby said the AFP was unable to find any admissible evidence that the North Korean government was involved in the Pong Su heroin importation, or that the government was aware of the drug shipment. But AFP efforts to try to get evidence were hampered by the North Korean government's refusal to cooperate with any aspect of the police investigation.

That obstructive attitude extended even to refusing to help the AFP identify those it charged or the North Korean who drowned while trying to get the Pong Su heroin onto the beach at Boggaley Creek. "We have asked for the assistance of the North Korean government and they have refused to assist us," AFP agent Appleby said. "We could easily find out everything about this case in terms of the Pong Su if they assisted us, such as providing passport, fingerprint and other details."

Mr Champion told the jury AFP agents on board the Tasmanian police launch Van Dieman were initially involved in pursuing the Pong Su up the Victorian coast after the discovery of some of the 150kg heroin shipment at Boggaley Creek. He said an AFP agent made a number of radio requests for the Pong Su to dock in Melbourne. "When the initial direction was issued for the shipto return to Melbourne, (the agent) was told by a person on the radio that they could not return to Melbourne," Mr Champion said. "The speaker initially indicated he would not comply with any instructions prior to seeking advice from the captain and his government."

Evidence was given during the trial of the four Pong Su officers that Captain Song had knowledge of all radio transmissions to and from the Pong Su and those sent were sent with his authority. The message from North Korea ordering the Pong Su to stop and fight was received at 9am on April 18, 2003. That was while the 4015-tonne freighter was being chased by police and two days before it was intercepted by the Australian warship HMAS Stuart and boarded by heavily-armed SAS troops.

A search of the Pong Su later resulted in the discovery of written transcripts of radio messages sent from the Pong Su to North Korea. "As a soldier for the greatest general we are determined to fight to the last man," one message said. Radio messages between the Pong Su and the North Korean embassy in Canberra were also found.

The Pong Su received another message from North Korea at 5.10pm on April 18 instructing it to disguise any involvement with North Korea by telling Australian authorities it was a Tuvalu-registered ship. It had been re-registered in the Pacific Island of Tuvalu on March 25, 2003, less than a month before its load of heroin was taken ashore at Boggaley Creek, 14km west of Lorne.

Getting a flag of convenience from the State of Tuvalu made the Pong Su less likely to be identified as North Korean. Any North Korean vessel in Australian waters was likely to attract the attention of authorities - and be boarded and searched - as North Korean ships are a rarity in Australia ports.

Australia to destroy North Korean drug ship

Reuters, March 6, 2006

CANBERRA - A North Korean cargo ship that led the Australian navy on a four-day sea chase is to be destroyed despite its captain being acquitted of heroin smuggling charges, police said on Monday. The navy chased the 4,000-tonne freighter Pong Su for 1,100 km (680 miles) off the southeastern coast in 2003 and stopped only after armed special forces troops took control of the ship.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said the drug-smuggling operation had high-level support from North Korea, although Pyongyang has rejected claims it was involved in smuggling heroin to support its failing economy. Keelty said the ship would be destroyed despite the courts acquitting the captain and three officers of drugs charges. "It still is a vessel that was used for the importation of heroin to Australia, and that's been proved before the courts, and it will be destroyed, just like any other vessel in that situation," Keelty told reporters.

A Victorian Supreme Court jury on Sunday found the captain and three ship's officers not guilty of aiding the drug-smuggling operation. Four other crew members have pleaded guilty, with two sentenced to 23 and 22 years in jail. The two others have yet to be sentenced.

The Pong Su was spotted off the southern coast of Victoria state in April 2003 when it unloaded part of a 150 kg (330 lb) shipment of heroin, worth A$165 million (70 million pounds), into a rubber dinghy for delivery to a secluded beach. It refused to stop for police, saying it would have to seek advice from the North Korean government before allowing police on board. It was finally stopped north of Sydney. The Pong Su has been impounded and berthed in Sydney Harbour since it was intercepted. Keelty did not say if the ship would be broken up or scuttled at sea.

Religious solace for sailors

By JEFF WHALLEY, Geelong Info, Tuesday, March 7

By Keith Moor, Heral Sun, 07 March 2006

Possible North Korean Government involvement in the Pong Su heroin importation demanded urgent discussions at the highest level. Relations between Australia and the secretive communist regime, run by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, were already strained. The rogue Stalinist state had earlier been named by US President George Bush as a member of the Axis of Evil, along with Iran and Iraq.

Repeated refusals by those on board the fleeing Pong Su to pull into port meant police had an international diplomatic incident on their hands. Australian Federal Police agent Damien Appleby, who was in charge of the Pong Su investigation, said none of the vessels available to police were able to stop the 4015-tonne freighter. "With a vessel that big, unless they allow a police boat to come alongside and allow boarding there is nothing we can do -- and the Pong Su ignored all our requests to do that," agent Appleby said. "We made a lot of phone calls about how we might board the Pong Su if it continued not to co-operate. "Basically, we discovered there was no civilian authority which could assist us."

Three police launches from Tasmania and New South Wales had already failed to stop the Pong Su as it fled up the Victorian and NSW coasts. Radio messages from the Pong Su to the AFP indicated that the vessel was not stopping and was on its way to the Solomons. Heroin from the Pong Su had already been seized in Victoria and the AFP desperately wanted to stop what was a floating crime scene.

At that stage the AFP didn't know about the Pong Su crew having been ordered to fight to avoid capture. But it did know it would take more than its own resources to safely stop and secure the North Korean freighter. So the AFP contacted the Federal Government and asked the Australian Defence Force to step in. The Federal Government quickly agreed and arranged for Royal Australian Navy warship HMAS Stuart to intercept the Pong Su. It made radio contact with the vessel at 5.53am on April 20, 2003 identifying itself as an Australian navy vessel and ordering the Pong Su to change course and adopt a speed of six knots to make boarding easier.

"This is Australian warship: I intend to board you," the radio message from the Stuart to the Pong Su said. The Pong Su didn't take the threat too seriously at first, replying: "Waiting one hour please, over." The Stuart replied: "I still intend to board you." To which the Pong Su replied: "At present now my crew members now sleeping now so waiting some moment, over."

The Stuart said: "No, sir, please wake them up. Rig pilot ladder starboard side, over." It then asked the Pong Su to get all its crew up on deck near the funnel so they could be seen from on board the Stuart

"The captain is washing, washing and eating now so waiting some moment," the Pong Su said.

The Stuart replied: "No, sir. Get them to the funnel NOW."

The Pong Su crew did not appear on deck, so heavily armed SAS members, 4th Battalion Royal Australian tactical assault soldiers and navy clearance divers started boarding it from HMAS Stuart at 7.34am. They simultaneously slid down ropes from a naval Seahawk helicopter and boarded the Pong Su from inflatable rafts. "At 7.41am it was reported that the bridge of the MV Pong Su had been secured," HMAS Stuart Cdr David Greaves said. "Subsequent actions by the boarding party were to secure the remainder of the crew and vessel to permit the safe embarkation of AFP and Customs officers. AFP and Customs boarded by boat at 8.34am."

Not a shot was fired as the 30 Pong Su members surrendered – so much for their vow to battle to the death to avoid capture in Australia. An official in North Korea – police were not able to establish who – had ordered them to stop and fight two days into the Australian authorities' four-day pursuit of ship.

Pong Su captain Man Sun Song, 65, admitted during his trial to having ignored requests by Australian authorities to stop and allow boarding. "I got an instruction from the company not to follow the police vessel's instructions, and just go to Solomon Islands," Capt Song said. Suspected North Korean Government involvement meant various Australian agencies and departments were involved in the Pong Su investigation for months. This approach was adopted because of political sensitivities surrounding possible North Korean Government involvement.

It involved high-level consultation between the AFP and certain agencies, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Immigration, the Australian Defence Force, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, intelligence agencies and state police forces. North Korean ambassador Chon Jae-hong was summoned by DFAT officials in Canberra on May 2, 2003 to discuss his Government's alleged link to the drug shipment. That came a day after US Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner claimed the North Korean Government was behind the plot to smuggle heroin in on the Pong Su.

The US State Department's 2002 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report accused the North Korean Government of being involved in drug trafficking. "The Democratic People's Republic of Korea Government, it is alleged, illicitly produces narcotic drugs and traffics in them to earn foreign exchange," it said. The US report said investigations of large heroin shipments to Taiwan and Japan revealed there had been a North Korean Government connection.

"Police interrogation of suspects apprehended while trafficking in illicit drugs developed credible reports of North Korean boats engaged in transporting heroin, and uniformed North Korean personnel transferring drugs from North Korean vessels to traffickers' boats," it said. "These reports raise the question whether the North Korean Government cultivates opium illicitly, refines opium into heroin and manufactures methamphetamine drugs in North Korea as a state-organised and directed activity, with the objective of trafficking . . . to earn foreign exchange." The North Korean Government refused AFP requests to assist in its Pong Su investigation.

U S and Australian experts on North Korea gave evidence in the Pong Su trial – much of which the jury was not allowed to hear – that they had no doubt the North Korean Government was involved in importing heroin on the ship. One of them, senior Asian studies policy analyst Balbina Hwang, told the Herald Sun that Pyongyang had a long history of drug smuggling. "Given the authoritarian controls in place throughout North Korea, illegal activities are not conducted by a rogue organisation operating independently of the Government," Ms Hwang said. "They are sanctioned and run by the regime.

"Since 1977, more than 20 North Korean diplomats, agents and trade officials have been implicated, detained or arrested in drug-smuggling operations in more than a dozen countries. "The Japanese Government reports North Korea is the largest exporter of illegal drugs to Japan, providing a possible $7 billion profit for the North Korean regime."

Faced with a strongly unco-operative North Korean Government, the AFP, not surprisingly, was unable to get any admissible evidence of North Korean Government involvement in the Pong Su heroin importation. But the AFP did identify the Asian international crime gang responsible for planning what is still Victoria's biggest heroin seizure. If the North Korean Government was involved, then it was working with this syndicate, which has connections in several lands, including China, Taiwan, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The AFP believes the Pong Su delivery was a test by the gang to see whether smuggling using an ocean-going freighter would work. Had it succeeded, AFP intelligence suggests the syndicate planned to stage many more and much larger heroin importations to Australia's southern coast. The Pong Su was carrying 150kg of high-grade heroin worth $165 million.  

A dinghy ferrying the heroin from the Pong Su to the beach at Boggaley Creek, 14km west of Lorne, broke down and capsized in April 2003. One of the two men in the dinghy drowned and 25kg of heroin was lost. Two packages of heroin weighing 50kg were seized from two members of the syndicate's shore party the next morning and three packages weighing 75kg were found buried near Boggaley Creek three weeks later.

AFP intelligence suggests international crime syndicates are examining shore landings as a preferred method of smuggling drugs to Australia. The Pong Su importation was the first known use of the southern coast as a drop-off point. Previous AFP drug investigations using shore landings have occurred on the continent's western and eastern coasts. The Pong Su steamed along the west coast before heading east and anchoring at Boggaley Creek. AFP intelligence suggests the Pong Su took this unconventional route to avoid surveillance deployed to detect people smugglers.

The AFP expects attempts to get drugs into Australia in a similar manner will increase. It has identified organised and well-financed trans-national crime groups which are keen to explore and use means of importation that lack the risks associated with the usual courier and cargo-container methods. The advent of stricter border security at air and sea ports after acts of terrorism around the world has made shore landings more attractive.

Australia's estimated 37,000km of coastline is an extremely enticing lure for drug importers wanting to avoid scrutiny at airports or the greatly increased resort by Customs to X-raying containers. AFP agent Appleby said the Asian drug syndicate involved in planning the Pong Su importation had the capacity to deal in tonnes of heroin. He said he had no doubt the freighter's trip to Australia with 150kg of heroin was a trial run to test the route and shore-landing method. "If it had worked then the syndicate would have sent much larger shipments of heroin in future," agent Appleby said. He said the syndicate had an established drug distribution network in Australia capable of getting shipments on to the street quickly.

AFP intelligence suggests that in the past it has provided the intended Melbourne and Sydney buyers of the Pong Su heroin with drugs through different methods. Agent Appleby rejected reports that the Pong Su heroin was to be distributed by Melbourne's father-and-son drug team of Lewis and Jason Moran, both of whom were shot dead during the underworld war.

Capt Song and three of his crew were cleared by a Supreme Court jury this week. Four other men have pleaded guilty to the Pong Su importation.

 

Ship’s crew freed: Trio not guilty of heroin haul

AAP, 06/03/2006

 

THE captain and three officers from a North Korean drug-running cargo ship have been found not guilty of helping to import heroin estimated to be worth more than $160 million into Australia.   Following almost seven months of evidence and 10 days of deliberations, a Victorian Supreme Court jury yesterday found the men not guilty of aiding and abetting the importation of a commercial quantity of heroin.   The Crown prosecution said the cargo ship Pong Su carried 150kg of heroin valued at more than $160 million to Australia in April, 2003.   The ship’s captain Man Sun Song, 65, its political secretary Dong Song Choi, 61, first mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, both 51, pleaded not guilty to the charge which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.   Outside the court, after the verdict, the four freed North Koreans and their lawyers were jubilant. “I’m very happy to be free,” Ju Chon Ri said. “Yes, we are going home, it’s good, good,” he said. He said it had been a long trial. “It has, seven months already. I’m very happy, thank you.”

Ju Chon Ri leaves Melbourne’s County Court yesterday. Picture: AAP IMAGE

Lawyer Nick Pappas, who represented first mate Man Jin Ri, said the verdict showed that justice had been done and the jury system was working. “We’re very happy with the verdict obviously and all the accused are very pleased to be freed after nearly three years in custody,” Mr Pappas said.

Mr Pappas said he was looking forward to celebrating with the men by having a beer. “They’ve got a visa as such and they’re walking down the street, so we might go and have an Australian beer with them,” he said.

 

Defence lawyer, John O’Sullivan, said the men would not be deported but he expected they would go home to North Korea within days. He said his client, Dong Song Choi, was still trying to come to terms with the verdict. “Clearly, he’s spent three years in custody, so it’s been a shock to him today,” he said. “But it would be hard to believe that the men wouldn’t be pleased with the result.”

Pong Su feighter crew cleared of drug charges

By Peter Gregory and Geesche Jacobsen, Sydney Morning Herald, March 6, 2006

 

A NORTH KOREAN freighter that has cost Australian authorities an estimated $2.7 million remained berthed in Sydney last night after senior crew members were acquitted in Victoria's largest heroin importation case. The 3743-tonne Pong Su was seized by the federal police after a four-day chase along the NSW coast in April 2003 on suspicion that it was used to import 150 kilograms of heroin. The ship's captain, Man Sun Song, its political secretary, Dong Song Choi, the first mate, Man Jin Ri, and the chief engineer, Ju Chon Ri, were found not guilty of drug importation after a seven-month trial yesterday. The jurors sat for less than an hour on their 10th day of deliberations before returning the verdicts in one of Victoria's longest trials. The cargo ship had anchored off Lorne in Victoria's south-west, on the night of April 15, 2003. Two men from the ship set off in a rubber dinghy carrying 150 kilograms of heroin packages, the prosecutor, John Champion, SC, had alleged.

KWP Political Officer, Dong Song Choi, walks out of Melbourne prison yesterday as a free man.

As they headed to a rendezvous with a three-man shore party, the dinghy capsized and one of the men drowned. Part of the drugs consignment was lost but 125 kilograms, estimated to be worth about $160 million, was brought ashore. Two men waiting on land for the shipment had pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting drug importation and received minimum sentences of 15 and 16 years.

Ta Song Wong, who brought the drugs from the Pong Su with the unnamed companion who drowned, is yet to be sentenced. Another member of the shore party is also awaiting sentencing. But in their trial the captain and senior crew denied any involvement in the importation, or knowledge of it. Mr Song told the jury he had believed Wong and his companion to be agents of a company that had chartered the vessel.

The companion told him on April 15 that the ship's charter to pick up luxury vehicles in Melbourne had been cancelled and he was to await further instructions. Mr Song dropped anchor 2½ kilometres from Boggaley Creek, where engine repairs were carried out. Mr Song said he did not learn until later that the agents had left the ship. He said he investigated their disappearance and was told by the ship's owners to leave the area and travel north.

Jack Dalziel, solicitor for the four men, said they had been granted bridging visas for a few days and were expected to return to North Korea. He said they were elated to be released after almost three years in custody.

The Pong Su had been berthed at Snails Bay, Balmain, then moved to Garden Island for repairs, and was last reportedly berthed at Chowder Bay, near Clifton Gardens. A spokesman for the NSW Maritime Authority said it cost "a couple of thousand" a month to berth the ship, but it is believed authorities are paying nearly $2600 a day for maintenance and security.

 

A spokeswoman for the Australian Federal Police said it was working with other government agencies in considering the fate of the Pong Su.

The stowaway cargo

A North Korean plot to smuggle $120 million worth of heroin into Australia came to grief on a stormy night in Victoria.

By Carmel Egan, The Australian, 06 March 2006

IT was a wild night on the shipwreck coast along the Great Ocean Road and the North Korean making a panic-stricken phone call was exhausted. "One is dead on the beach," he spluttered into the mobile. "One is dead. One is dead."

It was just after 1am on April 16, 2003, in Boggaley Creek, 14km west of the popular Victorian beach destination of Lorne, and the misadventure of Yau Kim Lam and his smuggling cohort from the North Korean cargo ship Pong Su had reached its climax.
Patrons at the Rookery Nook Hotel in nearby Wye River had seen the big ship unusually close to shore at lunchtime. By 8pm the Pong Su was pitching and rolling in a 5m swell having sailed to Australia via Jakarta with nothing in its hold except 150kg of heroin wrapped in suitcase-size packages.

Early in the evening, as a strong southwesterly made conditions perilous, two men and six 25kg bundles of heroin were lowered over the side of the ship in an inflatable rubber dinghy.

The dinghy fought its way through foaming seas and huge surf until the outboard motor failed and the boat capsized. One man was dashed on the rocks. His body, yet to be identified, still lies in the Melbourne morgue.

One of the bundles of heroin was lost overboard. The dinghy was disabled. The survivor, Ta Song Wong, was stranded on the shore with hours to wait before the midnight rendezvous with Lam and his shore party accomplices, Kiam-Fah Teng and Wee Quay Tan.

Teng had been responsible for land-based logistics: hiring cars, booking accommodation and organising the drug pick-up. Tan was to distribute the drugs to Vietnamese underworld contacts in Melbourne and Sydney.

The lead-up had gone badly. Lam failed to warn Teng and Tan that the ship was coming in until late that afternoon. The date could not be cancelled and Teng and Tan, stressed and angry with Lam, raced from Melbourne to Lorne.

Mobile phone records would later confirm that Lam was the conduit between the smugglers aboard the Pong Su and the shore party. Wong was under instructions to hand the drugs to Lam alone.

But by 1am Lam had completed his side of the bargain and was desperate to leave Boggaley Creek.

In a one-sided conversation intercepted by Australian Federal Police, Lam struggled to describe the drama to a Macau-based contact in the international drug-smuggling syndicate behind one of the largest narcotics hauls ever confiscated in Australia.

"He dare not carry the stuff," he said. "I am exhausted. F---, they won't carry them together. One is dead. Do you know? Hello? One is dead. The stuffs are too heavy, no one dares to take them. Too heavy to pull up the hill, you know?"

It was the last communication intercepted by the AFP before Lam, Teng and Tan left Boggaley Creek. The three heroin bundles they couldn't carry were buried and Wong was abandoned to his fate in the bush and bracken.

With two bundles of heroin in the back of a hired Tarago, Teng and Tan returned to their room at the Grand Pacific Hotel in nearby Lorne. Little did they know 13 AFP officers were also sleeping in the hotel that night, crammed into just two rooms. The shore party was surrounded.

Lam headed back towards Melbourne via Geelong intending to catch a flight to Thailand later that day. What was supposed to be a clandestine drug drop at an inconsequential corner on the Great Ocean Road was about to become one of the highest-profile drug busts ever by the AFP.

As daylight broke over the cove federal agent Steve Meagher found the dead smuggler's body. Teng and Tan were arrested about 7am as they tried to leave the hotel with a flat tyre on the Tarago -- it had been deflated during the night by the AFP.

Lam was picked up by police that afternoon as he drove along the Princes Highway towards Melbourne in another rented car.

Wong was found at 6.30pm in the hills behind Boggaley Creek. His discovery sealed the smugglers' fate. He had an orange Nokia mobile used by Lam that revealed the dates and times of calls between Lam and the ship and the numbers he had dialled.

Wong also had a global-positioning device used by Lam that enabled the AFP to locate discarded mobile phone SIM cards and, on May 7, 75kg of buried heroin.

Two years later, in 2005, Lam, Teng, Tan and Wong pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to importing a commercial quantity of heroin. Sentencing Teng and Lam, judge Murray Kellam said: "This is a serious example of a grave crime." People tempted to import heroin into Australia would "suffer a heavy penalty for their greed".

He sentenced 47-year-old Teng to 22 years in jail with a non-parole period of 15 years, saying he had displayed remorse and contrition. Lam, 34, who pleaded guilty at a later stage and did not show remorse, but a realisation of the inevitable, was sentenced to 23 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 16 years. Wong and Tan are yet to be sentenced.

But the fate of Wong and the shore party could not be made public until a verdict was reached in the trial of the captain, political officer, first mate and chief engineer of the Pong Su.

In a Supreme Court trial that lasted 119 days and heard evidence from more than 100 witnesses, each of the four insisted they knew nothing of Wong and his dead companion, the illicit cargo or the attempted landing in Australia.

A jury of seven women and six men believed them and yesterday found the captain, Man Sun Song, political officer Dong Song Choi, chief mate Man Jin Ri and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri not guilty.

The AFP had alleged they were co-conspirators acting with the consent of North Korean authorities on behalf of a Southeast Asian drug syndicate.

The Pong Su -- which is still held at Chowder Bay in Sydney Harbour -- is one of a fleet of five vessels owned by the Pong Su Shipping Company. Although the company claims to be an independent enterprise, witnesses told the court it was controlled by the Korean Workers Party and that the ships' crews would be members of KWP or under its control. It would be impossible, they alleged, for the captain and crew of a 4000-tonne, 106m-long vessel to embark on a voyage to Australia without the approval of North Korean officials.

The 20-year-old Pong Su was a busy coastal trader plying the Yellow Sea around the western North Korean and southern Chinese coasts, occasionally visiting Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. It carried miscellaneous cargo, from shipping containers to bulk sands.

The voyage that ended in tragic farce in April 2003 had begun two months earlier in the North Korean harbour city of Nampo, home of the Pong Su and the main port for North Korea's capital Pyongyang.

Shortly before its last voyage the bilge tanks were converted to huge fuel containers with the capacity to make long, non-stop sea voyages.

The Pong Su sailed from Nampo on March 15 headed for Singapore, where it loaded fuel for its voyage to Australia -- fuel the AFP believed was paid for by the Taiwanese arm of an international drug-smuggling syndicate.

On March 25, as the vessel sailed between Singapore and Jakarta, it was re-registered under a flag of convenience through the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu.

KIMTO, a Malaysian company, had supposedly hired the Pong Su on a time-charter to pick up $1 million worth of BMWs in Melbourne.

Captain Song argued two extra men on board were representatives of KIMTO.

On April 7, 2003, the Pong Su appeared on the West Australian horizon. On several occasions as it travelled down the west coast the ship was manoeuvred to within 500m of the shore as Wong received mobile calls from Lam via the Australian telecommunications network.

Song maintained he was acting on the instructions of the two charterers' agents to enable them to finalise details for the cargo of cars to be collected at the Port of Melbourne.

The ship rounded Cape Otway on the southern Victorian coast between 8am and 10am on April 15, 2003. Song said he was again acting on charterers' instructions when he laid anchor at Boggaley Creek. The car shipment had suddenly been cancelled so he and the chief engineer decided to make urgent engine repairs while they awaited further instructions.

Song said he had no idea the heroin was aboard his ship. No idea that Wong and his accomplice were not charterers' agents but drug smugglers. And no idea they had slipped over the side of the ship on that wild night and made for shore in a rubber dinghy full of heroin.

Twenty-four hours after reaching Boggaley Creek, the Pong Su was front-page news as Song began a four-day cat and mouse game with Australian police, customs and navy.

Soon after being buzzed by an RAAF Orion, the vessel headed at full speed for open seas about 10.30am on April 16. It was finally boarded 70 nautical miles northeast of Sydney at 7.30am on April 20 when armed SAS troops from the Royal Australian navy frigate HMAS Stuart rappelled on to the deck and literally gave Song a heart attack.

Initially 34 men, including Wong, Teng, Tan and Lam and the 30 officers and crew of the Pong Su, were charged with importing heroin worth between $80 million and $120 million.

But after a committal hearing charges against all but three were dropped; 26 sailors and the political officer, Dong Song Choi, were sent to Baxter detention centre in South Australia to await deportation.

Choi was later re-arrested by federal agent Appleby and case officer Celeste Johnston, a move that caused a riot by crew held in Baxter. Choi was the official representative of the all-powerful Korean Workers Party. "He is an exceptionally hard man," said Appleby. "He looked at me and said words to the effect, 'you will never be able to link them to the vessel'. He meant the shore party and the heroin. He said it in a way I thought, 'well, you spent that whole chase cleaning that vessel off'.

"Even when our forensics went through there were no fingerprints of Wong or the deceased on the vessel. Everything had been cleaned up. "

After three years in jail, the four are expected to return to North Korea within a few days, flying via China.

Experts point finger at leader

By Keith Moor, The Advertiser, 06 March 2006

THE jury that acquitted four Pong Su crew members yesterday never got to hear evidence about the North Korean Government's alleged role. Two eminent US experts on North Korea, Balbina Hwang and Joe Bermudez, gave written and verbal evidence during the Pong Su trial. But Supreme Court judge Murray Kellam ruled the jury was not allowed to hear it.

Both experts said they had no doubt the North Korean Government was involved in the heroin run. They revealed the North Korean Government created a secretive department, known as Bureau 39, to control and increase the flow of foreign exchange through legal and illegal imports. "Its officials are involved in heroin and amphetamine trafficking that generates as much as $500 million annually," Ms Hwang said.

Mr Bermudez said he had spent 30 years studying North Korea and had access to classified information and government and intelligence officials. He said the North Korean Government must have been aware the Pong Su carried heroin. "The Pong Su could not have left North Korea without the official sanction of the Korean Workers Party and the government," Mr Bermudez said. "It's most probable that the Pong Su Shipping Company, employing the Pong Su, was a front company established by the Korean Workers Party at the behest of Bureau 39 to co-ordinate the delivery of narcotics to Australia." Mr Bermudez said Bureau 39 was under the direct control of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the Pong Su's political secretary would have been reporting back to it.

Australian-based Korean affairs expert Dr Adrian Buzo also gave evidence it was his belief the Pong Su was owned by the North Korean Government and was under its direct control.

Australian Federal Police agent Damien Appleby, who was in charge of the Pong Su investigation, said the AFP was unable to find any admissible evidence the North Korean Government was involved in or aware of the heroin importation. But AFP efforts to try to get evidence were hampered by the North Korean Government's refusal to co-operate. "We could easily find out everything about this case in terms of the Pong Su if they assisted us, such as providing passports, fingerprint and other details," agent Appleby said.

DPRK Anniversaries to Be Commemorated in Australia

Pyongyang, February 6 (KCNA) -- The Australian preparatory committee for commemorating the Day of the Sun and Feb. 16 was inaugurated in Brisbane on Feb. 1. The co-chairman of the Oceanic Solidarity Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea was elected chairman of the preparatory committee. The preparatory committee set a commemoration period from Feb. 1 to Apr. 20 and decided to organize political and cultural events including meeting, film show, photo exhibition and art exhibition in the period. It also decided to issue an information bulletin for introducing the brilliant revolutionary history of the great persons of Mt. Paektu and their undying exploits and conduct a campaign for supporting the Korean people in their struggle to build a great prosperous powerful nation and achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea.

Pyongyang, September 15 (KCNA) -- An inaugural ceremony of the preparatory committee for celebrating the 60th founding anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea was held in Brisbane on Sept. 9. A member of the Australia-DPRK Friendship and Cultural Society was elected chairman of the preparatory committee and Raymond Ferguson, national secretary general of the society, secretary general of the preparatory committee at the inaugural ceremony. The preparatory committee set the celebration period from Sept. 10 to Oct. 10 and decided to hold celebration events such as meeting, lecture, photo exhibition and film show and release commemorative information bulletin in this period.

Pong Su crew ignorant of cargo, says defence

By Peter Gregory, August 9, 2005

The captain of the North Korean ship Pong Su was duped by drug smugglers who used a bogus charter to bring heroin to Australia, a Supreme Court jury heard yesterday. Ian Hayden, representing Man Sun Song, 65, said the ship was chartered by smugglers using the name of a defunct Malaysian company. He said a conman told a customs agent he wanted to use the Pong Su to export BMW and four-wheel-drive vehicles from Melbourne to Malaysia. But two drug importers, posing as charterers' representatives, boarded the ship in China, he said.

The ship was stopped off Boggaley Creek, near Lorne, on charterers' orders, and the captain acted in good faith in following instructions, Mr Hayden said. "He didn't have an understanding … (about) what we all know now, that it was in fact a sting and it was a bogus charter," he said.

Song and three other senior crew members have pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting heroin importation. The three other accused are the Pong Su political secretary Dong Song Choi, 61, chief mate Man Jin Ri, 51, and chief engineer Ju Chon Ri, 51.

AdvertisementProsecutor John Champion, SC, has told the jurors that two non-crew members headed for shore on April 15, 2003, in a rubber dinghy with the heroin. He said one drowned and the other was arrested, along with three other men from a "shore party" who came to collect the heroin.

Yesterday, John O'Sullivan, for Choi, said he had a purely political role on the ship, reinforcing the Communist Party line. Nick Papas, for Man Ri, said there was no evidence he knew narcotics were being imported. Stephen Russell, for Ju Ri, said the case against him was based on guesswork and speculation.

Downer urges China to act over North Korea

By John Shovelan in Washington, ABC, May 2005

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says China needs to pressure North Korea to end its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The United States wants China to increase pressure on North Korea to return to the six-party talks aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the stand-off. During an address in Washington, Mr Downer singled out China because of its economic influence and historic connections, as having a unique responsibility to press North Korea. "China in particular, needs to send a clear signal to Pyongyang that its pursuit of nuclear weapons in unacceptable," he said.

A White House official said President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao spoke by phone about North Korea today. He said the two leaders expressed concern about North Korea's recent actions.

N Korea Nuclear Capacity Growing: ICG

ABC News On-line, 18 November 2004

There are new claims that North Korea has the capacity to build up to 10 nuclear weapons. The International Crisis Group (ICG), one of the world's leading independent think tanks on international politics and security, says over the past two years North Korea has been stepping up development of its nuclear programs. The ICG has just published a report which it says could lead to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

President of the Brussels-based group and former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans says the report details a reward system for which Pyongyang would be required to reveal and dismantle its nuclear program. "It obviously has to commit itself to signing up against the non-proliferation treaty and allowing intrusive verification of what's been going on," he said. "It has to commit itself, ultimately, to showing that any weapons it has created have been destroyed or brought under international safeguards." 

By Ben Hills, November 8, 2004

In Snails Bay, a quiet corner of Sydney Harbour off the Balmain peninsula, a red and black-hulled freighter bobs at its moorings, surrounded by a cordon of flotation buoys.

Police and Customs allege that it is, in fact, a ship of shame. The Pong Su, they say, was used to smuggle the largest shipment of drugs ever seized in Victoria - 125 kilograms of exceptionally pure heroin with a street value of $164 million. Another 25 kilograms of heroin are believed to have been lost at sea, and the body of one alleged smuggler washed up on a beach.

The Commonwealth wants to get rid of the ship, but can't because - lawyers argue - it is a crucial piece of evidence in a huge drug-smuggling case which is not expected to begin in Melbourne until at least next February. Eight people - the ship's captain, chief engineer, chief mate, political commissar and a "shore party" of four - are to stand trial.

Peter Faris, QC, the former head of the National Crime Authority who is representing Captain Song Man-sun, has inspected the ship and says its layout may be important to the defence. He wants the jury to look around before it is sold or scrapped.

Early on, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to the ship's owners, the Pong Su Shipping Company of Pyongyang, telling the company it would be responsible for the costs of maintaining the ship, including having a marine engineer on board 24 hours a day.

However, a director of the company, Jon Hak-bom, refused. "Why we must pay?" he was quoted as saying during a visit to Melbourne last year. "If they give back ship we pay. Very much money is lost while she sleeps in Sydney ... we want ship back, and crew." As for the allegations that the Pong Su was a drug-runner, Mr Jon said: "I have never seen any drug in all my life. Our country not allow drugs."

Someone else who is unhappy that the Pong Su is rusting away in Snails Bay is retired Balmain ship's captain Gerry Seymour. Mr Seymour represents a syndicate of Vietnamese businessmen who want to take the Pong Su off the Government's hands. Earlier this year they organised a bank guarantee for $250,000 to buy the Pong Su and sail her away to be scrapped. However, the offer was snubbed and Mr Seymour was told not to bother making another one. 

"It's an absolute disgrace," he said. "It's costing the taxpayer an enormous amount to have her sitting there, the ship is deteriorating and losing value every day, and she is a pollution hazard." The argument is due back in the Victorian Supreme Court next Monday. Until then, the only people happy with the Pong Su are those with the marine engineering company which has that $2596.36-a-day contract to look after it.   

(Oct. 22, 2004 KOTRA-North Korea Team, Koo Kyung-hee, Tel: (82-2-3460-7423)

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reportedly gave North Korea an A$4 million (or 3.4 billion won) worth of assistance last August. The aid consisted of wheat flour, health-care equipment, children’s medicine and the repair/maintenance of sanitary facilities.

Having been offered mostly in the form of actual goods, the assistance was originally designed for an advance support to expedite a smoother resolution of the NK’s nuclear problem during the official visit of the Australian minister for foreign affairs Alexander Downer to the North. Wheat flour was delivered by way of the WFP (World Food Programme), health-care equipment by way of the WHO (World Health Organization) and money for purchasing children’s medicine and the repairing/maintaining sanitary facilities by way of the UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund).

In January of 2004, Australia offered A$4 million worth of wheat flour and repair supplies for water supply facilities to North Korea. In April of this year, 2004, when the NK was suffering from the damage of the Ryoncheon railway explosion accident, Australia assisted the North with A$3.25 million worth of wheat flour and relief goods on the basis of humanitarianism. As a result, the Oceanian country’s aid to the NK amounted to A$11.25 million (or 9.5 billion won) until the first eight months of this year.

-- CANBERRA, Aug. 30, 2004 (Yonhap) --

Inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation have developed to a point where it is impossible to reverse the trend, South Korea's foreign minister said Monday. 'Despite recent difficulties, cooperation and exchanges between South and North Korea are on an irreversible track,' Ban Ki-moon said during a speech before the National Press Club in the Australian capital. 'Too many big interests would be at stake on both sides, especially the North, if they reversed the trend,' he said.

The Koreas held their first-ever summit in 2000, pledging to work together for reconciliation and peace. The meeting touched off a series of economic and other exchanges between the two sides, including reunions of separated family members. Despite the detente, however, tension remains on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's nuclear program. As an example of inter-Korean economic cooperation, Ban cited a project under way in the North to build an industrial complex for companies from the South.

The minister said the industrial zone being built in the North Korean border city of Kaesong will be beneficial to both sides as South Korean companies can take advantage of cheap northern labor and land, while the North can benefit from new jobs created there. 'The Kaesong industrial complex project will lead a new era of economic inter-dependence between South and North Korea,' he said.

Regarding the standoff over the North's nuclear program, Ban said he is optimistic that the dispute will be resolved peacefully. 'The participants (in the six-party talks) are trying to convince the North's leadership that nuclear weapons can never guarantee their safety and welfare and that there is a better future for a North Korea without nuclear weapons,' he said. 'The South Korean government is determined to do its utmost in a patient and resolute manner to achieve a Korea Peninsula free of nuclear weapons,' he said.

Earlier in the day, Ban paid a courtesy call on Australian Prime Minister John Howard and held talks with his counterpart, Alexander Downer, on economic, security and other issues. He also signed a bilateral resource cooperation accord with Australia's industry, tourism and resources minister, Ian Macfarlane. Ban arrived in Australia on Saturday for the last leg of his three-nation trip that also took him to Thailand and New Zealand last week. He is the first South Korean foreign minister to visit the two down-under countries in 27 years. 

Speaking to reporters in Hong Kong, Mr. Downer said North Korean officials had given him no hint as to when the next round of working-level talks would be held.

"Our focus is on getting them to understand what the broad issues are from the point of view of the region and the international community, and making sure that they remain engaged in the six-party talks," he said. "There will be substantial aid and substantial international economic engagement through investment and trade and the like once North Korea abandons its nuclear programs. Its nuclear programs are not in the end going to be beneficial to the North Korean national interest. I've come away optimistic that they will remain engaged in six-party talks ... They haven't said they won't come to the talks."

Mr. Downer said he had not expected to come out of Pyongyang with the whole problem solved.

"This is something that's going to take a good deal of time," he told CNN. "It's a slow process and it's going to be a painstaking process. But I'm hopeful now that the process can yield a positive result. I'm not too pessimistic any more."

At the last round of talks in Beijing in June, the US offered a package of economic and diplomatic rewards, plus a promise that North Korea would not be attacked, in return for Pyongyang closing down all its nuclear weapons facilities. North Korea rejected the proposal and this week suggested it might not attend preparatory discussions for the next round of talks.

Mr. Downer said he encouraged North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun and parliamentary head Kim Yong Nam to focus on the common elements of the American offer and their own demands.

"I don't know that there's much more that I can do, but I very much hope that my visit's made a real contribution to keeping the talks alive," Mr. Downer said. "I'm hopeful and optimistic that the six-party talks process will continue, that they will turn up to the next round of six-party talks unless something untoward happens between now and the time of those talks." (...)

Meanwhile, strategic experts cast doubt on a report that North Korea had developed ballistic missiles with the capacity to strike as far as Tasmania. The Australian Financial Review said a recent Australian intelligence assessment had noted that the Taepodong 2 missiles had a potential range of 6,000km to 10,000km, meaning they could reach southern Tasmania. But Australian Strategic Policy Institute operations and capability program director Aldo Borgu said best advice was that North Korea was five to 10 years away from developing such missiles.

NORTH KOREAN FOOD PRICES CREATE NEW LOSERS

BBC, 18 August 2004

Changes in North Korea's economy have led to spiralling food prices which many people cannot afford, according to the World Food Programme.

"As the economy shifts from a planned economy to a more market-based economy, there are winners and losers," Richard Ragan, WFP director in Pyongyang, said. He said that a new class of people now needed food assistance.

Impoverished North Korea remains deadlocked with its neighbours and the US over its nuclear programme. Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has made a rare trip to Pyongyang, to urge the DPRK to renounce nuclear weapons. Mr. Downer said he had asked North Korean officials to remain involved in six-nation talks on the controversial nuclear programme, after concerns that Pyongyang may pull out of preparatory meetings for the next round of negotiations.

"I've been, on arriving here, concerned that the six-part talks process was stalling, and I hope that we've been able to add some substantial momentum to that process," Mr. Downer said.

Earlier this week he promised Pyongyang "substantial" benefits in aid and investment if it ended its nuclear activities. The economy in North Korea, which for years has been beleaguered by natural disasters and Stalinist planning, is now facing a new set of challenges, Mr. Ragan said.

The country's public distribution system was only providing a fraction of the food that North Koreans need to live on, he told a press briefing in Beijing. He said the situation was driving economic, market-oriented reforms in the Stalinist country, because people were being forced to sell goods to eke out a living.

"Physically you see more wealth in Pyongyang, more stores, more restaurants, more automobiles... people seem to have more liquid capital," he said. "People are trading... and you see things which indicate that people have some disposable income," he said. "The bad news is that prices of food around the country are going up, and salaries are staying pretty static."

The price of essential items has risen sharply in recent months. The cost of rice has doubled from this time last year, rising from 130 won ($0.92) per kilo to 700 won ($5.00), Mr. Ragan said.

"We're finding a new group of vulnerable people, such as factory workers without land, a new at-risk population who can't afford (the) prices," Mr. Ragan said. And he said that despite the market reforms, North Korea remained "a chronically food deficient country". 

"We're going to be in this situation for a long time," he added. Mr. Ragan said that children were even being left at orphanages for a few months at a time, because their parents could not afford to feed them.

Downer launches own missile on eve of visit to North Korea

By Tom Allard, Foreign Affairs Reporter, August 14, 2004

Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer has made the astonishing claim that North Korea could launch a ballistic missile to hit Sydney, prompting incredulity among experts who said he had got his facts very wrong.

Mr Downer leaves this weekend for an historic visit to North Korea. Yesterday he jettisoned diplomacy to lash the communist regime's record of nuclear deceit, missile development and its trafficking of hard drugs.

Speaking to Sydney radio host Alan Jones, Mr Downer made the alarming remarks about Pyongyang's long-range missile program. "They could fire a missile from North Korea to Sydney," he said, later saying it was a threat that Australia had "no capacity" to defend.

It is well known that North Korea exports missile technology. Latest intelligence suggests it is developing two new classes of long-range missiles. But their furthest reach is believed to be about 4000 kilometres, with limited accuracy. Sydney is about 10,000 kilometres from North Korea.

A spokesman for the North Korean embassy in Canberra laughed when the Herald relayed the comments. "It's not true. Everybody knows that. Even a two or three year-old child."

Analysts also were stunned, saying it would be decades before North Korea had missiles with such a long range. "US intelligence would say that's impossible at the moment and exceedingly unlikely in the indefinite future," said Ron Huisken, a defence analyst at the Australian National University.

After creating a storm and forcing a clearly surprised Prime Minister, John Howard, to deny that the Government was scare-mongering, Mr Downer clarified his remarks, saying North Korea did not have the intention of striking Australia. But he did not resile from his claim that it could. He told reporters he had simply provided "an illustration of the types of programs they are doing".

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said he was puzzled and called for a briefing.

The Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman, Natasha Stott Despoja, said: "Is there a North Korean version of [discredited Iraqi informant] Ahmed Chalabi providing the minister with intelligence?"

Mr Downer's comments follows the furore after he suggested the Philippines Government were "marshmallows" who had appeased terrorists after it withdrew troops from Iraq. Similar comments about Spain also met with an official rebuke. This week he was also forced to back down on his hardline stance on the sharing of oil and gas revenues in the Timor Sea with East Timor.

In his savaging of North Korea he dismissed the regime as having "no interest" to "take the country forward". Moreover, it had a "very active and significant drugs trafficking operation". He said he would not meet North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, but would hold talks with senior officials.

Hill backs N Korea statement

August 14, 2004

AUSTRALIA saw no threat of attack by North Korean nuclear-armed missiles at this time but no one really knew what weapons were being developed in the reclusive state, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.

Senator Hill said it was believed the North Koreans had a nuclear weapons program and were working on missiles of much greater range than the Taepodong missile which was fired over Japan in August 1998. But he did not go as far as endorsing comments yesterday by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer who warned they could fire a missile from North Korean to the United States or Sydney.

The opposition and defence experts queried whether the North Koreans had any such advanced capability. Senator Hill said no one really knew. "One of the difficulties with North Korea is that you don't always know either the state of development or whether the weapon system is deployed," he told reporters in Darwin.

"So there remains some uncertainty about that. But certainly what I do know is the missile they are developing is a very long range missile."

"We don't see a threat to Australia at this time.

"But we see a country that's not been prepared to accord to standards of normal civilised behaviour developing long range ballistic missiles."

Senator Hill said there were differing views around the world but some analysts believed the North Koreans might already have a small stockpile of nuclear warheads. He said the combination of nuclear warheads and a missile delivery system was not a comfortable situation.

"You've only got to ask the Japanese what they think of it," he said. "And that's why we're working so hard with others from within the international community to try to bring North Korea back into the community of nations that focuses on other things like better living standards for their people."

Australia reinstated diplomatic relations with North Korea four years ago and is one of the few western nations with access to the North Korean regime. Mr Downer will head there next week for an official visit and talks.

Senator Hill said there was a great irony that North Korea devoted its resources to developing sophisticated weapons systems but could not feed its own people. He said there had been slow progress in the multilateral talks with North Korea aimed at convincing it to end its weapons programs.

Japan, South Korea, Russia, China and the US all had an interest in persuading North Korea along that path, he said. "And we, with the broader international community, are looking at ways in which we can add value to that process," he said.

"We take whatever opportunities we can to have further assistance because we mightn't see North Korea as a threat to us now (but) we want to ensure that they're not going to be a threat to us some time in the future." AAP

Downer's visit to N Korea unlikely to cut much ice

By Hamish McDonald, Herald Correspondent in Beijing, August 14, 2004

Early last month, a battalion of Chinese army engineers pitched tents on the banks of the Yalu River and then spent the next two weeks practising assembling pontoon bridges. Just what military engineers are supposed to do, but the Yalu forms part of the Chinese border with North Korea, and when word of the exercise leaked out via some Japanese activists with pictures posted on an Osaka website, it set off a flurry of speculation in South Korea and right-wing Japanese circles.

Was China preparing for the worst in North Korea, such as a military contingency in which it would be forced to intervene, or the collapse of its communist regime? Was it sending a none too-subtle message to its prickly ally that Chinese support had its limits? Was it a signal that Pyongyang should stop stalling at the six-nation talks Beijing is sponsoring to persuade it to abandon its nuclear weapons efforts?

This week, the speculation prompted Beijing to admit to the exercise, which it said was just to prepare troops for dealing with natural disasters - which sounded as lame as its acknowledgement a year ago that paramilitary police manning the North Korean border were being replaced by regular army troops - and that the exercise adds nothing to do with the nuclear crisis that had just blown up.

Into this heated strategic environment, where North-East Asia's longstanding alliances are creaking and grating like thawing pack-ice, Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, will step next week for a rare visit to the North Korean capital. 

While initial Canberra reports ramped it up as a serious diplomatic initiative - conjuring images of Mr Downer returning waving a piece of paper and declaring peace - Australian officials say the objectives are far more modest, and the timing quite accidental, with the Pyongyang visit tacked onto regular ministerial talks with China.

Mr Downer will spend only 20 hours in Pyongyang, meeting his counterpart Paek Nam-Sun, but almost certainly not the supreme leader Kim Jong-Il.

The hope is simply that the North Koreans will turn up at the next and fourth round of six-nation talks in Beijing (involving the two Koreas with China, Japan, Russia and the US), due late next month. 

Pyongyang used a visit by senior Australian diplomat Murray McLean earlier this year to confirm the dates of the third round in June. "If the talks happen and the DPRK [North Korea] is there and out and everyone says after the meeting that we didn't make a breakthrough but we got closer then I think we can say that the Australian visit back in August was worthwhile," one Australian official said. "If they don't turn up or if they storm out, I would admit that our visit didn't work."

The official insisted Mr Downer will not be taking a message from Washington: "We are going with the blessing of the US and the other members of the six-party group but we are not going in there with a letter from anybody."

The modest effort comes after Canberra switched to a softer tone with North Korea early this year. Its freeze on senior diplomatic contact, imposed after the North Korean ship the Pong Su was intercepted after allegedly dropping off heroin in Victoria, was lifted. Not much has been heard recently about the "proliferation security initiative" to intercept exports of nuclear material from rogue states, in which Australia took an early lead role.

If the talks take place, the five other countries will be expecting a considered reply to a big US concession at the last round, agreeing that Japan and South Korea could start sending fuel oil and other aid to North Korea as soon as it agrees to a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of all its nuclear weapons and related production facilities. 

Since the June talks, Pyongyang has noisily rejected the proposal, insisting it needs only to "freeze" its admitted plutonium effort and denying the mounting evidence that it has also been getting Pakistan's help with uranium enrichment.

Canberra worries that the North Koreans might be stalling to see if President George Bush's hardline administration is replaced by another set of officials next January. "[But] we're saying to them this is the time to get serious. The US has put something on the table. You've put something on the table, There's a lot of distance between them but let's keep working on it," the Australian official said.

But more than cajoling from a US ally, it might be heavy hints from its own big brother China that gets North Korea to a deal.

Pong Su crew members deported

August 3, 2004, The Age

Australian authorities have deported 18 North Korean crew members from an alleged drug-running freighter seized last year after a four-day chase off the Australian coast. But eight crew of the Tuvalu-registered Pong Su remained in Australia to face charges and further investigation, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Tuesday. "We are not proceeding with charges against 18 of them," an AFP spokesman said. 

It is understood the immigration department sent the men back to North Korea on June 24. Pong Su captain Song Man Sun and three others have pleaded not guilty to charges of aiding and abetting the importation of heroin, while investigations are continuing into four other crew members. 

The Pong Su was seized after a four-day chase up the east Australian coast in April last year. Blocks of heroin, allegedly supplied from the Pong Su, were found in cars near the Victorian coastal town of Lorne. The AFP has alleged the drugs were loaded on to the Pong Su at the North Korean port of Nampo. Last month, two defectors told ABC television that the North Korean government was involved in the shipment of drugs, including those allegedly linked to the Pong Su.

Jumping to conclusions

By Martin Chulov, April 22, 2004

EXHIBIT A in the court of government opinion sits at anchor in a back stretch of Sydney Harbour, oil slowly seeping from its hull and the bill to keep it there nudging $1 million.

The Pong Su is more than the pivotal piece of evidence in an alleged state-sponsored drug-running conspiracy, it has also emerged as another symbol of how readily political conclusions can be drawn – despite the absence of evidence to back them. 

One year ago, almost to the day, the Pong Su and its crew of 30 North Koreans was boarded and seized by the Special Air Service and police off the NSW central coast. Left in its wake, off the Victorian coastal town of Lorne, was 125kg of heroin and a whole lot of intrigue. 

What was a modified North Korean freighter and its crew doing this far south? And who sent it? The questions – and answers – resonated around Canberra and all the way to a White House on a war footing. 

"The ship is North Korean-owned," said Foreign Minister Alexander Downer days after the Pong Su had been escorted into Sydney Harbour. "North Korea is a socialist state, there is no private enterprise in North Korea. We are very concerned there could be any association between North Korea and drug trafficking. 

"We are laying down some markers to North Korea today that we are very concerned about this, bearing in mind that North Korea is a totalitarian state and there has been an official of the Korean Workers Party aboard the ship." 

Downer stopped short of a direct accusation, in favour of a where-there's-smoke-there's-fire position. The US, however, went further. 

At the time of the Pong Su's interception, the Bush administration had not long tagged Pyongyang as the third arm in the axis of evil trilogy alongside Iraq and Iran. Dictator Kim Jong-il was galvanising his nuclear program and bankrolling his ambitions through criminal enterprise, the US alleged. 

The branding of North Korea as a terrorist threat was a central platform of the US case to go to war with another alleged terrorist state, Iraq – and to keep a surly eye on Iran. 

Briefed by the Australian Government and its agencies, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said of the Pong Su and its cargo: "With respect to nuclear weapons programs as well as proliferation activities and other activities of the regime, such as the drug trafficking that they do . . . if you take note of the ship that the Australians stopped not too long ago. These kinds of behaviour will not help the people of North Korea come out of the serious economic difficulties that they find themselves in." 

Soon after the ship was seized, the 30 crew members were flown to Melbourne, where they were jailed awaiting trial on heroin-trafficking charges, which carry sentences of 20 years to life imprisonment. 

Earlier this year during a court hearing, Peter Faris QC, amid cross examination of six of the defendants on trial, asked Australian Federal Police agent Damien Appleby: "But you are not saying that this is an enterprise of the North Korean Government as such, are you?" Appleby replied: "No." 

Faris continued: "So without putting too fine a point on it, you would almost say that this was a true example of private enterprise in North Korea?" 

Appleby's answer was instructive: "My own view on it is it was just organised crime. We have got no evidence of any government involvement." 

It was a significant blow to the position of both governments, but it strangely slipped by unnoticed. 

The AFP would not elaborate yesterday, and with the Pong Su's many defendants still before various courts and commissions, they are unlikely to change their tune soon. Downer's office would say only: "Obviously what happened with the Pong Su was of concern to Australia, but we just have to let it all run its course now." 

However, the evidence given by Appleby, which came after 10 months of inquiries in Australia and abroad, shoots a hole in the positions held since the ship's seizure by Australia and the US. Since Powell's remarks in July last year, his department's view had become even more entrenched. 

In March, it released the International Control Narcotics Strategy report, which stated: "The Pong Su seizure and numerous drug-smuggling incidents linked to North Korea over the past several decades reflect official involvement in the trafficking of [drugs] for profit and make it highly likely, but not certain, that Pyongyang is trading narcotic drugs for profit as state policy." The findings were in direct contrast to those of the lead investigating agency, the AFP, and the intelligence assessments of ASIS and the Defence Intelligence Organisation, which had spent the past year examining the ship's mysterious journey through the Gulf of Thailand, the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and, finally, the tempestuous waters of the Tasman. 

Yesterday, on the eve of a fresh application for the Pong Su's captain, first mate and chief engineer to be removed from jail and housed within the confines of the North Korean embassy in Canberra, Faris railed on the political imperatives that surrounded his clients' capture. 

"Australian authorities got over-excited and they jumped to the wrong conclusion – that they had a North Korean ship delivering heroin to Australia on behalf of Pyongyang," Faris said. "It was certainly what the US Government wanted to hear because they have used this any number of times as evidence of North Korean conduct. And had it been true it would have been a great coup for Australia in the eyes of America. The only problem with that is it isn't true." 

For the third time in as many months, the interaction between the Australian and US governments and their intelligence agencies has been called directly into question. But, unlike the imbroglio surrounding Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction, the Pong Su case is not so much an allegation of doctoring the evidence to suit an agenda. It is a suggestion that governments ignored the evidence that was placed before them – or, worse, jumped to politically loaded conclusions without the benefit of evidence. 

"If this is the sort of intelligence that governments act on, you can see how pathetic intelligence services can be," Faris said. In opposing the crew members' bail application, Appleby told the court the applicants posed an unacceptable risk of flight. 

"They have tried to flee in the past . . . on the ship for four days when it was clear that they were required to return to Australia," he said. "I have concerns about it [the cash surety] coming from them [the employer]. The employer is a suspect in this investigation." 

Many questions still need to be answered about the Pong Su's journey. Chief among them are why the 3000-tonne freighter was registered in the Pacific Island of Tuvalu and who were the organised criminal figures who dispatched it. Inquiries so far have pointed to southern China, a familiar smuggling route for high-grade heroin of the calibre dumped overboard from the freighter off the coast of Lorne. 

Then there is what to do with the 27 crew members who were earlier this month released from court, only to be rounded up again – this time by the organised crime-fighting tsars, the Australian Crime Commission, which plans to keep them here while it explores the same issues covered by the federal police investigation and their appearances in court. 

According to Faris, the crew is unlikely to co-operate with the ACC, wanting instead to return home as soon as possible. "They can then be charged with refusing to give evidence, then convicted and fined, and given another court attendance notice," Faris said. "They could be here forever." 

Pong Su crew face questioning

By Chee Chee Leung, April 9, 2004

The Australian Crime Commission is expected to question the crew of a North Korean "heroin ship" after a judge dismissed an attempt to block the examination.

The 27 crew members of the freighter Pong Su had been accused of helping to import heroin worth $164 million, but were discharged last month because of insufficient evidence.

They have since been awaiting deportation at South Australia's Baxter detention centre, where they now face questioning as part of the crime commission's investigation into South-East Asian organised crime.

The Pong Su is alleged to have delivered 125 kilograms of heroin to Australia last year, the largest shipment of heroin yet seized in Victoria. The ship's captain and six others - including an on-shore party - have been committed for trial.

Lawyers for the crew members had applied to the Federal Court to prevent the crime commission from questioning the men, saying it would prejudice or interfere with federal judicial power. They said the investigation was intended to gather evidence against those committed to stand trial, and would take advantage of procedures not available in court. It was also alleged that questioning after their discharge was improper. 

But in his judgement, Justice Ron Merkel said he was not satisfied with these arguments. He dismissed the application and ordered costs against the crew. 

He said the commission's plan to question the crew was part of a lawfully conducted special investigation and would not give the Director of Public Prosecutions an advantage in prosecuting the accused.

The crew's solicitor, Jack Dalziel, said an appeal was being considered. He said crew members had been discharged from prison and felt insulted that they should have to submit to further questioning. "Certainly the situation that these people find themselves in does not just affect foreign nationals. It could happen to any person in Australia," Mr Dalziel said.

Cleared Pong Su crew members may sue

A Melbourne lawyer representing 27 North Koreans cleared over drug smuggling allegations say they may sue the Australian Government. It is alleged 125 kilograms of heroin was smuggled onto the southern Victorian coast from North Korean freighter, the Pong Su last April. Seven men, including the Pong Su's master, have been ordered to stand trial but charges against 27 crew members have been dismissed.

The crew members' lawyer, Rainer Ellinghaus, says they may seek damages for inappropriate detention. "We're looking at the issue of what action can be brought by them, what damages we might be able to seek on the basis that they shouldn't have been kept in custody for the period of time in which they've been kept in custody," he said. "On the basis that it was possible for the agencies involved to determine the fact that there was no evidence against them since very shortly after their arrival."

Seven to face trial over Pong Su heroin haul

Seven men accused of smuggling heroin into Victoria on board a North Korean cargo ship have been ordered to stand trial. Charges against 27 of the ship's crew were dismissed. It is alleged 125 kilograms of heroin was smuggled into Victoria onboard the North Korean freighter, Pong Su, in April last year.

A committal hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court was told two men brought the drugs ashore near Lorne in southern Victoria but one drowned during the operation. Magistrate Duncan Reynolds has committed two of the men who were allegedly waiting on shore for the drugs to stand trial on several charges, including possessing a prohibited import. A third alleged member of the shore party was committed earlier.

The men who allegedly brought the drugs ashore - the Pong Su's master, chief mate and chief engineer - have been ordered to stand trial for charges including aiding and abetting the smuggling. Mr Reynolds said there was not enough evidence to support convictions against the other 27 crew members and dismissed their charges.

Outside court, the crew's lawyer, Jack Dalziel, said the men will now be held at an immigration detention centre. "We'll find out this afternoon how soon it is before they go home," he said. "Basically they're obliged to send them home as soon as practicable. "They're just looking forward to going home and seeing their families. We've spoken about this at length with them and it's been expected that they would be discharged. "Charges against them have been very weak since the outset."

Mr Dalziel said the men were charged without being questioned. "They've been sailing around the world, they've been pulled off a ship, put into custody in a maximum security prison in Australia," he said. "They've maintained from the outset they had nothing to do with it and police in other words assumed they were guilty before they even spoke with them and when they do get their day in court, as they call it, you'll certainly hear that they have had no involvement in this matter."

U.S. Says North Korea Dealing in Illegal Drugs

3/5/2004. U.S. officials say that North Korea is probably dealing in illegal drugs as a matter of state policy, Reuters reported March 2. The comments, which were included in the State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, address suspicions of the Bush administration that the North Korean government is involved in heroin and methamphetamine trafficking for profit. Among the evidence cited by the report was Australia's seizure of the North Korean ship Pong Su last April. The ship was carrying 275 pounds of heroin to Australia.

The report also cited an unnamed defector who said North Korean authorities order the cultivation of poppy, as well as heroin and methamphetamine production. "State trading of narcotics is a conspiracy between officials at the highest levels of the ruling party/government and their subordinates to cultivate, manufacture, and/or traffic narcotics with impunity through the use of, but not limited to, state-owned assets," the report said.

The report further stated that, "Law-enforcement cases over the years have not only clearly established that North Korean diplomats, military officers, and other party/government officials have been involved in the smuggling of narcotics, but also that state-owned assets, particularly ships, have been used to facilitate and support international drug-trafficking ventures."  

Agence France-Presse reported that the US said its "axis of evil" foe the DPRK was almost certainly running state-sanctioned drugs trafficking operations for profit. The seizure last year of a DPRK ship off Australia implicated in drugs trafficking and a string of other incidents "reflect official involvement in the trafficking of illicit narcotics for profit," the department said. Such evidence makes it "highly likely, but not certain, that the DPRK is trading narcotic drugs for profit as state policy," the department said in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy report. 

The DPRK ship, the Pong Su, was seized by Australian police in April 2003 after apparently delivering 125 kilograms of heroin to criminals at an isolated beach, the report said. Another incident, which the report connected to the DPRK came in Pusan, ROK, last June when customs officers grabbed 50 kilograms (100 pounds) of methamphetamine from a PRC vessel which had stopped at the port of Najin, DPRK. ("US ATTACKS NORTH KOREA'S "STATE" DRUGS TRAFFICKING POLICY," 03/02/04)

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