ABSTRACT
The North Korean nuclear crisis has at the time of writing reached an impasse. The Six-Party Talks – the diplomatic process comprising the US, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia designed specifically to address this crisis –
have not convened since September 2007. North Korea officially
withdrew from these talks in April 2009. Sanctions can be seen
both as part of the problem and as part of a potential solution to the present impasse. Until North Korea takes ‘concrete measures’ towards denuclearisation and agrees to return to the talks, the other five members – ostensibly at least – maintain they will
not lift sanctions imposed against it, most recently following its nuclear test of May 2009. In a manifestation of those sanctions, the Thai authorities in December 2009 seized 35 tonnes
of weaponry (including rocket-propelled grenades and missiles) sourced from North Korea and bound for an unspecified location
in South Asia or the Middle East from a cargo plane refuelling in Bangkok.1 A similar seizure took place in August 2009, when authorities from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) intercepted ten containers of North Korean military hardware from an Australian-owned vessel bound for Iran.2
