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http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Jap...report_999.html

Japanese high-tech items were found among missile-manufacturing equipment confiscated on a North Korean freighter a decade ago, a report said late Saturday. The North Korean cargo, detained at an Indian port in June 1999, contained a three-dimensional measuring device, special steel and other Japanese high-tech products, Kyodo News reported citing a former senior Indian official.

Tokyo has taken a stern policy against North Korea, developing a missile shield with the United States since the Pyongyang regime fired a missile over Japan's main island, Honshu, in 1998.

It bans export of any products to the secretive communist regime that could be used for military purposes.

The official confirmation of the items found on the freighter Kuwolsan "is the first concrete example of how Japanese equipment ended up being used in North Korea's proliferation of missile technology," Kyodo said.

Kuwolsan, described in some media reports as North Korea's "hidden missile factory," was detained during a stop at India's western Kandla, the news agency reported from New Delhi.

Former Indian official, K. Santhanam, found the Japanese products when he directed a search on Kuwolsan on behalf of an Indian Defence Ministry entity involved in missile development, Kyodo said.

North Korea is known to have provided missile know-how to Pakistan in return for nuclear weapons technology.

The Kuwolsan's captain initially told Indian authorities his ship was delivering "water refining equipment" to Libya, but later admitted that the cargo was intended to be unloaded in Pakistan, Kyodo said.

A group of experts from the United States, Russia and South Korea, examining the items at a request from India, later concluded the ship was carrying missile-assembly equipment and missile parts, the report said.

Indian authorities believe North Korea had acquired the Japanese products through China or some other countries, it said.