When law enforcement agents boarded a rusty, aging North Korean freighter making a rare journey down the Panama Canal last week, they had been tipped off that they would find narcotics, Panamanian officials said.
Instead, after a violent confrontation with the 35-member crew, they discovered a more unusual cargo hidden in its depths: a cache of Soviet-era weaponry concealed beneath more than 200,000 bags of Cuban brown sugar.
The freighter's detention has thrown a light on the secretive deals North Korea is making, possibly in breach of United Nations sanctions, as it struggles for survival.