The owner of the North Korean ship Mu Du Bong has hit out at plans by Mexican authorities to scrap it.
This ship ran aground in Mexico in mid-2014, and was impounded seven months later. The ship’s ownership company was sanctioned by the UN due to an earlier weapon smuggling case in Cuba.
“We solemnly declare that we will certainly have all spiritual and material losses and damages inflicted upon us by unreasonable US-manipulated UN ‘resolutions’ paid and have the right to claim indemnity generation after generation,” a statement by the management company stated via North Korea’s official newswire.
The manager claimed the ship was carrying out legitimate business and that its seafarers were not employed by Pyongyang.
The statement is not the first time the ship’s manager has taken aim at the UN resolutions which call for freezing assets associated with the sanctioned Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), noted a report carried by NK News, a leading authority on North Korean trade, stated Mexico has moved to scrap the rusting ship as it feels it has become a safety and environmental concern.
Leo Byrne who tracks North Korean shipping for NK News told Splash today: “Many of the vessels that were linked to OMM are now on the UN’s blacklist. Since they were designated they appear to have kept a pretty low profile, though some have been seen very close to Chinese ports, while a few others appear to be running domestic routes between local ports.”
