At the 2013 North Korean military parade, the appearance of a group of American-style *** attracted global attention, and foreign reporters felt incredible. The existence of these *** is not only a symbol of North Korea's military power, but also a mystery that transcends time and space.
It all started in the '80s, when North Korea was under tremendous pressure to modernize its economy and military. In order to narrow the military gap with South Korea, the DPRK decided to take bold actions and introduce advanced military equipment. Their eyes eventually fell on the MD500*** in the United States.
However, due to the hostile policy of the United States towards North Korea after the war, it is clear that direct purchases will not work. The North Korean authorities, considering various options, have come up with the strategy of skillfully introducing these *** through "middlemen" from third-party countries. Eventually, North Korea selected West Germany's Delta Avia Aircraft Equipment as an intermediary.
In this way, North Korea not only successfully circumvented international sanctions, but also made this batch of MD500*** their secret**. Therefore, when these American-style *** were unveiled at the military parade in North Korea, it not only symbolized the modernization of North Korean military equipment, but also reflected their unique tactics and capabilities in the international military **.
In the shadow of the cold war, the arms deal was often part of the international political struggle. Delta Avia Aircraft Equipment, ostensibly a company that focuses on aircraft parts, hides more unserved services, including profiting from the clandestine delivery of arms to certain sanctioned countries as a middleman.
On an ordinary day in 1983, three hurried Asian guests visited the company, their purpose was straightforward, and the request to buy 102 MD500*** put the company's top brass in a dilemma, and while they were no strangers to covert arms deals, the fact that the buyer was North Korea made them hesitate.
North Korea has been under an economic blockade by the United States, and the deal involves not only the complex issue of how to circumvent international regulation, but also the difficulty of how to complete the delivery of equipment in plain sight. Given North Korea's geographical proximity to South Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, there is little way to transport clandestine equipment, and the only possible route is by sea, but this route requires multiple key shipping lanes, which is extremely risky.
Initially, the company's leaders rejected the deal, but as the North Korean side continued to raise prices, their position began to waver. Eventually, with a huge amount of money, the company agreed to the request and promised to take care of all the details.
A few months later, Delta Avia placed an order for 102 *** aircraft in the United States in its own name, which were delivered in seven separate batches. Although the destinations on the order are marked as Spain, Portugal, Japan, etc., the real destination is North Korea. This series of operations skillfully circumvented international regulation, completed a high-risk arms deal, and covertly rewrote the military balance during the Cold War.
After the U.S. delivered the first batch of MD500*** to Delta Avia Aircraft Equipment, the company hired a Panamanian-flagged vessel to pick up the cargo and ship it directly to a Belgian port for unloading. Throughout the process, all the logistics information was carefully recorded in two sets of documents: one was an official order record, and the other was a secret shipment to North Korea.
After a short stay in a Belgian port for two days, Delta Avia cleverly created the illusion that all the cargo had been unloaded from the ship, and then secretly loaded *** back onto the ship at night. After that, the ship was sent to the Nigerian port, ostensibly for supplies, but in fact to transfer *** to another ship.
To further mitigate the risk, the ship then traveled to Hong Kong, China, where it was eventually safely transported to North Korea via a Soviet-flagged vessel. Throughout the operation, Delta Avia also forged a series of delivery documents, successfully convincing the U.S. that the *** had been safely delivered to the designated country.
This series of ingenious manipulations and forgery techniques made the whole transaction process last for nearly 3 years. However, due to the negligence of the crew in the last order, the US Department of Commerce became suspicious and opened an investigation into the ship. Although the results of the investigation shocked the United States, revealing that all the documents of Delta Avia were forged, the United States could not obtain conclusive evidence because the forgery technology was too high, and in the end it could only sentence the company's leaders to minor crimes. As for the final destination of the MD500***, the United States can only be helpless.
By 2013, North Korea had shown off the MD500*** at its military parade with great fanfare, and although they had been repainted in the colors of the North Korean Air Force, their prototypes were still recognizable. This scene made many people suddenly realize that those missing MD500*** ended up in North Korea.
Since then, the U.S. has tightened controls over the export of military equipment, making it difficult for North Korea to acquire U.S. equipment through the same means. But for North Korea, with South Korea's economic turmoil and its own progress in the field of strategic deterrence, the need for American-style equipment may no longer be urgent.