June 15 (Bloomberg) — Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam all regressed last year in their efforts to battle trafficking of men, women and children for labor or commercial sex, according to the U.S. State Department. The three Southeast Asian countries were placed on a watch list of middle-tier countries, placing them one level above the worst offenders such as North Korea, [...]

BANGKOK : Thailand said on Thursday it had decided to drop charges against the crew of a plane carrying sanctions-busting weapons from North Korea and ordered the five men deported. The attorney general’s office said it was not in the national interest to pursue the case against the Belarussian pilot and four-member Kazakh crew and said they would instead face [...]

Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) — An airport in Iran’s capital of Tehran was the intended destination for a North Korean weapons shipment seized in Bangkok on Dec. 12, according to a confidential report to the United Nations Security Council by Thailand’s government. A copy of the report, obtained from diplomats whose governments hold Security Council seats, said the 40-ton cargo’s destination [...]

An increasing number of North Korean refugees are arriving in northern Thailand, fleeing poverty and political oppression at home. Two North Koreans turn away as a group of journalists and refugee activists attempt to talk to them. They were spotted on the side of the road along Thailand’s border with Laos. Several more ran as journalists approached. Speaking in Chinese, [...]

A Thai court has ordered the crew of a cargo plane transporting weapons from North Korea to remain in jail for 12 more days. The five crew members, consisting of one Belarus national and four Kazakh nationals, were arrested in mid-December after their cargo plane was seized during a stop in Bangkok. The plane was carrying 35 tons of heavy [...]

Weapons seized in Thailand from an impounded plane traveling from North Korea were likely destined for Iran, a high-ranking Thai government security official was quoted by Reuters as saying regarding the findings of a team investigating the arms. “Some experts believe the weapons may be going to Iran, which has bought arms from North Korea in the past,” said the [...]

North Korean plane seized The biggest weapons seized on a Soviet cargo plane detained at Don Mueang airport on Saturday are multiple rocket launchers – two mobile units – and two dozen 240mm unguided rockets, high-ranking security sources said yesterday. The total value of weapons found in 145 large boxes that weigh nearly 40 tonnes all up was estimated at [...]

Bangkok – Thai authorities on Saturday impounded an airplane from and unnamed Eastern European country that was found to be carrying war weapons, a government spokesman said. The pilot of the airplane had requested an emergency landing at Bangkok’s Don Muang Airport to refuel Saturday morning. “When authorities boarded the plane they found it was filled with war weapons,” government [...]