Score a point for the good guys (we'll take them when we can).  Last week, I posted ("High Stakes on the High Seas") on the North Korean freighter steaming in the South China Sea, believed to be headed towards Burma, maybe carrying really nasty cargo, and being tracked by the U.S. Navy. Given the Kang Nam's past role in North Korean proliferation operations, antennas were raised. I called it a test case of the new sanction effort against North Korea. Reports now confirm that the Kang Nam turned around and returned to its home port in North Korea - without unloading any of its cargo. 

We will probably never know what was on this ship. Some speculate that it was a dummy run by the North Koreans to see how we would react. Others hypothesize that Burma said "no thanks" to taking delivery, given the spotlight on the ship. South Korean media has speculated that Burma's payment for the goods - to be routed through a Malaysian bank - got blocked as part of the effort to clamp down on North Korea's access to cash. 

If the Kang Nam was in fact denied a port call, it shows the importance of countries hanging together in the face of the North Korean threat.  In the past, that hasn't been the case, and probably won't be in the future.  North Korea's neighbors, notably China, have typically let Pyongyang off the hook a few weeks or months after a North Korean provocation. Our task now is to build on this success, for North Korea is a determined proliferator.  Importantly, Admiral Gary Roughead, our top man in the Navy, issued a warning yesterday that U.S. naval assets will continue to monitor and follow ships exiting North Korea. Go Navy.