A HONG KONG company was involved in sending tonnes of explosive chemicals used in the production of Scud missile fuel to Iraq, the United States Government revealed last week.
The cargo, allegedly smuggled from China, never reached its destination, being intercepted in Saudi Arabia in January.
The seizure led to a global operation, centred in the US and Hong Kong, to stop the group behind the plan, and ignited fears in the US that Iraq's President Saddam Hussein was trying to re-arm his country.
In a landmark case, a naturalised South Korean-American was arrested near New York last Wednesday for arranging the shipment through the territory by a Hong Kong firm, Forcefully Ltd.
Investigators claim that Storm Kheem, who is also known as Kim Kyung-iI, orchestrated the deal to deliver 30 tonnes of ammonium perchlorate from Guangdong to Iraq by a series of telephone and faxed instructions.
According to US experts cited in the complaint against Kheem, the restricted chemical is the key ingredient in the production of solid rocket fuel used in Scud missiles. The weapons were fired with deadly results at targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel by Iraqi troops during the Gulf War.
