In June, New York Times reporter David Sanger captured the White House staff's Hamlet-like mood of self-doubt and auto-generated second-guessing as it pondered what to do about North Korea's Kang Nam, then shadowed by USS John S. McCain:
"The whole thing just doesn't add up," said one senior administration official who has been tracking the cargo ship's lazy summer journey. "My worry is that we make a big demand about seeing the cargo, and then there's a tense standoff, and when it's all over we discover that old man Kim set us up to look like George Bush searching for nonexistent W.M.D."
No such worries for the Indian government which seized, boarded, brought into port, and inspected MV San. India's inspection revealed 16,000 tons of sugar but no missile parts, nuclear reactor components, or any other prohibited materials. Indian officials seem neither apologetic nor red-faced about this result.
Naturally there are some differences between the Kang Nam and MV San episodes. For reasons unknown, MV San dropped anchor in the middle of the night near Hut Bay Island, Indian territory. The Indian coast guard then gave chase and seized the ship. Perhaps if Kang Nam had anchored off Guam, the U.S. Navy would have subsequently seized it after it had chased it back out to sea. Or perhaps not. The June 2009 UN Security Council resolution required that North Korean crews first give their permission to high-seas boardings. U.S. officials deemed this a reason for not ordering USS John S. McCain to board Kang Nam. But it is not clear from the news reports that India received permission to board MV San. To the contrary, that crew was described as "uncooperative."
If the Proliferation Security Initiative and UNSCR 1874 are to ever have any meaning, some day there will have to be forced boardings of North Korean cargo ships. With a duplicate of North Korea's Yongbyon plutonium reactor having appeared in a Syrian desert, North Korea hardly merits the benefit of the doubt. If it is too shy to carry out this sort of work, perhaps the U.S. government should subcontract these duties to the Indian Coast Guard.