* WikiLeaks documents reveal battle for supremacy above the Earth in 2007
* Both superpowers destroyed their own satellites with missile strikes in show of strength
The U.S. warned China it could take military action in response to Beijing’s use of space missiles, it has emerged.
Leaked diplomatic documents reveal that the U.S. shot down one of its own satellites to demonstrate its ballistic power after China had destroyed its own weather satellite.
And despite being threatened with military action in 2007 by then U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, China carried out another missile test only last year.
The military standoff has been likened to the ‘star wars’ strategic missile plan conceived by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
According to diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph, China and the U.S. jostled for position behind closed doors over the issue of missile defence.
China shot down a weather satellite stationed 530 miles above the earth in January 2007, sending over 2,000 pieces of space debris into orbit.
The strike was the first anti-satellite test since 1985 but despite widespread international criticism of China’s actions, then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jinchao stressed: ‘There’s no need to feel threatened by this.’
Cause for conflict: China and the U.S. engaged in a military standoff over space missile tests
The field of conflict: An artist's impression of a weather satellite, similar to that shot out of the sky by China with a missile
The Obama administration is seeking a go-ahead from Congress to sell up to $60 billion worth of sophisticated warplanes to Saudi Arabia and could add another $30 billion worth of naval arms in a deal designed to counter the rise of Iran as a regional power.
The deal would apparently represent the largest single U.S. arms sale ever approved. It would allow Saudi Arabia, the most militarily advanced of the Arab Gulf states and one of the richest countries in the world, to buy top-line U.S.-made helicopters and fighter jets with ranges that would span the Middle East and beyond.
Unlike some previous sales to Saudi Arabia, this one is not expected to be derailed by opposition in Congress or from U.S. backers of Israel, who have worried in the past about blunting Israel's military edge over its Arab neighbors.
Pentagon proposes huge sale of warplanes to Saudis
Iran is now seen by Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the West as a significant and unpredictable threat that has changed the old calculus of the region's balance of power.
Hell in the sky: The AC-130 Hercules - aka 'Angel of Death' fires its deadly load
This is the ‘Angel of Death’, the world’s biggest flying artillery gun – and the latest weapon being used by British and US Special Forces to defeat Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Our exclusive picture shows the AC-130 Hercules aircraft unleashing its awesome firepower on the enemy 2,000ft below.
From a distance the plane – nicknamed the ‘Angel of Death’ because of the shape that its anti-missile flares take when they are fired – looks like a normal troop carrier.
But the aircraft, which is rarely deployed in daylight, carries a powerful Howitzer 105mm field gun which can ‘vaporise’ targets at a range of 1,200 yards.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) participates in an Internet conference with Indian citizens
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) participates in an Internet conference with Indian citizens
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov (L) talks with Indian Defence Minister A.K. Anthony
Putin was to sign more than a dozen arms and energy pacts worth around 10 billion dollars with India
Energy is emerging as a focus between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (R) speaks with Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a joint news conference in New Delhi March 12, 2010.
Russia will build more than 1,000 stealth fighter jets within four decades, including at least 200 for its traditional weapons buyer India, the head of plane maker Sukhoi said on Friday.
Sukhoi test-flew its long-delayed fifth-generation fighter at the end of January, and Moscow said it would be able to compete with its U.S. F-22 Raptor rival built more than a decade ago.
Sukhoi said last week it hoped the fighter, codenamed T-50, would be ready for use in 2015.
"If you talk about warplanes of this type, there is definitely a market for it if we produce more than 1,000 jets," Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan told reporters on the sidelines of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to India.
"We have all grounds to believe that there will not be tough competition on the world market," he said.
He said Russia would produce more than 1,000 of the planes within 35 to 40 years.
After the test flight, Putin said Russia had plenty of work to do on the plane.
Analysts say Russia's plans for a joint venture with India to produce the stealth fighters will likely be watched with unease by India's uneasy neighbour Pakistan and regional rival China.
Pogosyan said an agreement on joint output of the jet with India was still in the works and did not say when a deal might be signed.
"I believe that more than 200 planes will be delivered (to India)," Pogosyan said.
"I think (Russia's) defence ministry will buy no less than this amount," he said. About 600 of the planes would be sold elsewhere, he said.
Analysts say several nations, including Libya and Vietnam, have already expressed interest in the fifth-generation fighter.
"Apart from America, the only other fifth-generation project is Russia's, while the Europeans have given up such plans," Pogosyan said.
"Probably the Chinese will try and promote such a product, but I think they face an immense amount of work to make their product competitive," he said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in India to sign a clutch of multibillion-dollar arms deals, said Friday it was time for the old Cold War allies to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defence.
At just over 7.5 billion dollars in 2009, bilateral trade turnover is minuscule and the two countries aim to lift it to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
"There is the political will on both sides, but we need support from the captains of industry," Putin said during a live webcast with leading Indian businessmen and cultural figures.
"We should think about the future," Putin said, stressing the need for commercial ties to move beyond arms sales -- Russia is India's biggest supplier -- into areas such as energy, banking and information technology.
"Cooperation in hi-tech is the priority for us," he said. "The Russian government is ready to directly support this activity, with the help of additional financial assistance, if need be."
According to Indian officials, energy is emerging as a focus between oil and gas-rich Russia and energy-starved India, always on the lookout for new fuel sources to power its growing economy.
Indian foreign ministry official Ajay Bisaria noted that New Delhi had invested 2.8 billion dollars in an oil field on Sakhalin island off Russia's east coast and was in talks with energy firms Rosneft and Gazprom for more blocks in north Russia.
"India has had an energy strategy of investing in equity in that region and this continues," Bisaria said.
Russia is expected to begin construction soon of a nuclear power facility in the eastern India state of West Bengal and Friday's visit is set to result in another deal for at least two reactors in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Russia is already building two reactors there.
"This is one of our most important and promising areas of cooperation," said Putin, who acknowledged growing competition to provide nuclear energy to India after it sealed a landmark deal with the United States in 2008.
The agreement allowed India access to civilian nuclear energy despite its refusal to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Putin was scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh later Friday and sign more than a dozen arms and energy pacts worth around 10 billion dollars.
The deals include an accord to resolve the sale of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, as well as 29 MiG fighter jets.
The sale of the Admiral Gorshkov has been marred by a series of price disputes and delayed deliveries, fuelling concerns in Moscow that India could be tempted to end its dependence on Russian military equipment.
Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the new accord would "suit both sides" and help put the dispute behind them.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States.
The strong ties between Moscow and New Delhi date back to the 1950s after the death of Stalin. But India has in recent years also taken care to balance this friendship by fostering closer relations with Washington.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sealed a visit to India Friday with a raft of multi-billion-dollar arms and energy deals, including the construction of 16 Russian nuclear reactors.
The two countries also signed agreements for the long-awaited sale to India of a refitted Soviet-era aircraft carrier as well as 29 MiG fighter jets, further cementing Moscow's role as New Delhi's principal arms provider.
Energy-hungry India is one of the world's biggest markets for nuclear technology and the reactor deal is a triumph for Russia's state atomic agency Rosatom which faces stiff competition from French and US rivals.
While welcoming the deals, Putin stressed that the two Cold War allies were still short of realising the potential of their partnership, one half of the powerful four-strong group of emerging nations that includes China and Brazil.
"The level of our capabilities has not been reached," he said following talks with Indian Premier Manmohan Singh.
Singh hailed the meeting with Russia -- a "trusted and reliable strategic partner" and a "pillar of our foreign policy" -- and pointed to the "rich and very substantive" agreements signed in nuclear energy, defence, space and other sectors.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the reactor agreement covered the construction of "up to 16 nuclear energy units" at three Indian sites.
Earlier, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state atomic agency said six of the reactors would be built by 2017.
Two units are already under construction in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Russia won a deal to build four more in 2008. It was unclear if the 16 reactors referred to by Ivanov included these six.
The accord on the aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, marks the end of a lengthy purchase process that was marred by a series of price disputes and delayed deliveries.
Ivanov said the ship would be delivered by the end of 2012. The final cost was not revealed, although experts believe it to be around 2.3 billion dollars.
Russia supplies 70 percent of India's military hardware but in recent years New Delhi has looked to other suppliers including Israel and the United States.
Mikhail Pogosyan, the general director of Russian plane maker Sukhoi as well as the unit that manufactures MiGs estimated the value of the MiG-29K fighter deal at around 1.5 billion dollars.
The strong ties between Moscow and New Delhi date back to the 1950s after the death of Stalin. But India has in recent years also taken care to balance this friendship by fostering closer relations with Washington.
In a live webcast interaction with Indian businessmen, Putin said it was time for the old Cold War allies to boost trade beyond the limited scope of defence.
At just over 7.5 billion dollars in 2009, bilateral trade turnover is miniscule and the two countries aim to lift it to 20 billion dollars by 2015.
"There is the political will on both sides, but we need support from the captains of industry," Putin said.
"Cooperation in hi-tech is the priority for us," he added. "The Russian government is ready to directly support this activity, with the help of additional financial assistance, if need be."
On security issues, Putin highlighted the presence of militant outfits operating along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, saying they were cause for concern not just to Russia and India but the entire region.
Putin also reassured that Russia had prioritised its military relations with India over rival Pakistan, with which New Delhi has fought three wars since 1947.
In the space realm, Russia agreed to help put an Indian into space in 2015 -- the target date for India's first manned space mission.
Paramilitary policemen practise during a daily training session at the Forbidden City in Beijing, February 1, 2010.
Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou (L) speaks to Taiwan's top negotiator on China policy, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman P.K. Chiang, during an International Democrat Union (IDU) meeting in Taipei, February 1, 2010.
Paramilitary policemen practise during a daily training session at the Forbidden City in Beijing, February 1, 2010.
A child runs past a torpedo on display outside the Taiwan Armed Forces Museum in Taipei, January 30, 2010.
U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Wallace Gregson speaks during a forum hosted by the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo, February 1, 2010. The United States intends to meet its obligation to ensure Taiwan's self-defence capabilities, Gregson said on Monda
Chinese state media blasted the United States on Monday for a planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan but U.S. officials said they hoped the flap would be temporary and not derail cooperation.
The arms sales, the latest by the United States but the first by the Obama administration, has added to a litany of strains between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies, including the value of China's currency, trade protectionism, Internet freedoms and Tibet.
The official China Daily said U.S. weapons sales to the self-ruled island, which China claims as its own, "inevitably cast a long shadow on Sino-U.S. relations."
"China's response, no matter how vehement, is justified. No country worthy of respect can sit idle while its national security is endangered and core interests damaged," the English-language newspaper said in an editorial.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S.-China relationship was important and "I don't think that either country can afford to simply walk away from the other."
Gibbs said any sanctions against the companies involved in the arms sales, a move threatened by China for the first time, would not be warranted.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, recognizing "one China," and says it wants the two sides to settle their differences peacefully. The United States remains Taiwan's biggest backer and is obliged by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to help in the island's defense
.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the arms sale decision reflected "long-standing commitments to provide for Taiwan's defensive needs."
"We will, as always, pursue our interests but we will do it in a way that we think allows for positive and cooperative relations with China," he told reporters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates defended the arms sale, telling reporters he hoped China's decision to protest by curtailing bilateral military contacts would be temporary and that he still planned to visit China later this year.
"Stability is enhanced by contact between our military and a greater understanding of each other's strategies, so I hope that if there is a downturn, that it will be a temporary one and that we can get back to strengthening this relationship," Gates said.
MISSILE BUILDUP CONCERNS
The Pentagon's 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review Report to Congress, published on Monday, said the United States was concerned and closely monitoring China's missile buildup and increasingly advanced capabilities in the Pacific region.
"One regional trend that particularly concerns the United States is the growing imbalance of power across the Taiwan Strait in China's favor," the report said.
The report said U.S. defense policymakers "remain committed to a relationship that is positive, cooperative, and comprehensive and do not believe a hostile or adversarial relationship with China is by any means inevitable."
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must accept eventual unification, by force if necessary. China's ruling Communist Party controls the country's media and uses them at sensitive times to amplify its message.
Venting intense anger over the arms sales, Chinese Internet users called for a boycott of top U.S. exporter and plane-maker Boeing Co and other companies supplying parts.
China has for years opposed U.S. defense sales to Taiwan, which has been separated from mainland rule since 1949 and was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945.
But for the first time, Beijing sought to pressure the United States by threatening to formally punish companies whose arms are involved in the arms package, which was announced on Friday.
"China has no room whatever for compromise on this issue," said a commentary in the Liberation Army Daily, the mouthpiece of the country's military, adding that Chinese armed forces were ready for "resolute struggle" over Taiwan.
"It is entirely reasonable to impose corresponding sanctions on U.S. companies involved in arms sales to Taiwan."
U.S. arms exporters declined to comment on the Chinese threat and White House spokesman Gibbs said: "I don't think those (sanctions) would be warranted."
Walter Lohman, director of Asian studies at the Heritage
Foundation, said China's response was "mostly noise" and probably designed to deter Washington from considering selling F-16 advanced fighter jets to Taiwan.
"Partly what they're doing now is trying to scare us off the F-16 sale, by making a big deal out of this one," he said.
CHINESE FACE LIMITED OPTIONS
Chinese shares appeared unmoved but trading in offshore one-year dollar/yuan non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) implied slightly slower appreciation for the yuan over the next 12 months.
Dealers said the NDFs shift was mainly driven by the dollar's global strength but the Sino-U.S. tension contributed.
China's top leaders, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, have not publicly commented on what they have said is their nation's topmost issue, suggesting they want to keep some leeway in dealing with Washington.
Despite Beijing's strident words, options for punishing the United States were limited, said Drew Thompson, director of China Studies at the Nixon Center, a thinktank in Washington.
"They don't have a lot of leverage, and that's a source of frustration for them," he said. "It's hard to picture what they could do that's anything other than symbolic."
Sanctions on Boeing could give its rival, Airbus, more leverage in negotiations with Chinese buyers, Thompson said.
U.S. officials have said Taiwan, which lags China in the balance of military power, needs updated weapons to give it more sway with Beijing, which Taiwan says has more than 1,400 short- and mid-range missiles aimed at the island.
Beijing would postpone or partially halt some military contacts with the United States, including visits planned for this year such as Gates's trip, Xinhua news agency said.
China also said the dispute will damage cooperation with the United States over international issues. Washington has sought stronger Chinese support over several hotspots, chiefly the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.
"It's difficult to take what are global problems and use them as a tool to vent frustration over a bilateral issue," Thompson said of China's options. "They risk isolating themselves pretty badly."
The $6.4 bln sale has outraged Beijing
US President Barack Obama came in for criticism last year for not meeting with Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama
Taiwanese soldiers man US-made anti-tank missiles during a military event in the island's capital, Taipei
White House has warned China against sanctioning US firms
US urge China against sanction
The United States has urged China not to slap sanctions on US companies selling arms to Taiwan, as the firms tried to stay out of President Barack Obama's biggest row yet with Beijing.
The Obama administration defended the arms sale Monday as preserving the military balance between Taiwan and fast-growing China, which reacted furiously to a US announcement it was selling the 6.4 billion dollars in weapons.
Beijing has always strongly opposed US sales to Taiwan, which it considers a Chinese territory awaiting reunification. But in a new step, China pledged Saturday to punish the US companies involved in the deal. Related article: China furious at US 'arrogance' on Taiwan
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Chinese sanctions "would not be warranted."
Gibbs said that Obama had spoken to Chinese leaders when he visited Beijing in November about the question of arms sales to Taiwan, and other issues.
"We've always said that we want the type of relationship where we're working together on important issues of mutual concern," Gibbs said.
"But when we have disagreements... we'll voice those disagreements out in the open, in public."
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the sale was consistent with longstanding US policy of only recognizing Beijing but of providing Taiwan with weapons to ward off a potential invasion.
"We think these defensive arms will contribute to security and stability across the Taiwan Strait," Crowley said.
"We regret the fact that they have suggested they will impose sanctions on US companies involved in the sale of these defensive articles."
Obama has tried to pursue wide-ranging cooperation with China, saying that the world's largest developed and developing economies can work together on issues from climate change to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear disputes.
But relations have hit a rough patch on a range of disputes including Google's revelations last month that China had been hacking into accounts of the company and human rights activists.
Another row may be fast approaching as Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is visiting the United States in late February.
Obama came under intense criticism at home last year for not meeting with the Dalai Lama so as not to sour the mood before the president's trip to China.
The US side agreed that Obama would meet later with the Dalai Lama, who is widely respected in the United States but vilified by China.
US companies involved in the Taiwan deal all declined to comment other than to say that the issue concerned governments and not individual firms.
An official at one company noted that China did not reveal details about the sanctions, making it difficult to gauge the impact.
US defense contractors sell little to China, which has been under a US and EU arms embargo since its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
But Boeing Co. -- whose McDonnell Douglas unit was given a 37 million-dollar contract for 12 Harpoon missiles to Taiwan -- is an aerospace giant which counts China as one of its largest markets.
Nonetheless, Boeing shares closed up 1.82 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, outpacing the benchmark Dow index, after Obama's budget proposal outlined new business for the company with NASA.
Boeing has deep ties with the aviation industry in China, which could stand to lose if it sanctioned the aviation giant.
Three Chinese companies are under contract to produce key parts of Boeing's emblematic 787 Dreamliner, which took to the skies in December after a more than two-year delay.
Aviation expert Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at Teal Group, said that with past arms sales to Taiwan, "it's usually been this little dance of expressing disapproval over a few months and then things return to normal."
"But you never know when there could be a tipping point," he said. "If somehow Europe stays squeaky clean and the US has this tension over Taiwan and Tibet and cyber freedom and climate change, then there may be a shift to the European aerospace companies."
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Armoury: Belts of live ammunition were discovered together with knives and riot police batons
Terrance Gavan's weapons cache which was discovered at the home where he lived with his mother in Batley, West Yorkshire
Jailed: Ex-BNP member Terence Gavan
Gavan admitted four counts of possession of prohibited weapons and six other terror charges
Hand grenade casings: Gavan told police he was fascinated with things 'that went bang'
This is the fearsome collection of guns, bombs and ammunition found at the home of a former British National Party activist fascinated by 'things that went bang'.
For a decade Terrance Gavan stockpiled an arsenal of home-made weapons, including nail and ball-bearing bombs, shotguns, pen guns and pistols.
The 39-year-old former neo-Nazi turned his home into a bomb and gun factory, leaving hand grenades, shotguns, knives and fireworks littered around his attic bedroom.
Gavan, a former soldier, had converted it into a workshop, complete with a metal lathe and bullet press which he kept alongside an extensive collection of weapons and military equipment, including knives, a samurai sword, camouflage clothing, guns and bullets.
The cache was discovered when anti-terror police searched the terraced house he shared with his mother in May last year after Gavan was linked to a website selling parts for weapons.
They discovered 54 homemade explosive devices which he had constructed over a decade, including 21 nail bombs, four bombs packed with ball bearings and 28 other devices, such as pipe-bombs and reactivated hand grenades.
One booby-trap bomb was even disguised as a packet of cigarettes.
Yesterday, the weapons-obsessed loner was jailed for 11 years at the Old Bailey.
The court heard that Gavan, who worked as a bus driver, had been making bombs since the age of ten and also made his own guns.
Police found ten firearms including two pen guns, three with silencers and two gas-fired pistols converted to fire live ammunition.
He had even tested a gun by firing it through a Yellow Pages book and at the bedroom walls of his home in Batley, West Yorkshire.
Also at the property were 40 knives, a crossbow and arrows, 120 bullets, air rifles, gun components, gunpowder and chemicals including hydrogen peroxide and weed killer.
Army bomb disposal experts spent six days searching and removing the explosives from his home.
They discovered that he had been making grenade launchers when officers stumbled upon the weapons factory.
Among his vast collection of books on war, he had manuals on booby traps, unconventional warfare techniques, improvised munitions and guerilla warfare operations.
Gavan also had a CD version of The Anarchist's Cookbook, a 1970s underground publication which contains instructions for making explosives.
When arrested, Gavan admitted he had an 'obsession with things that go bang' and said he had made the guns and bombs 'for the illicit thrill of owning them, to see if you can make them and then play with them'.
The court heard that as a boy he would test his own homemade explosives.
As a teenager he had a brief stint in the RAF and then went on to join the Royal Dragoons in 1988.
Gavan served with them for five years, during which he spent 280 days in military detention for nine separate disciplinary incidents.
In November 1993 he was discharged from the Army after being jailed for brandishing a loaded gun at a friend during a pub row while absent without leave.
Then, in 2007, he joined the BNP. Alongside letters and magazines from the BNP found in his bedroom, officers found a notebook of his rants against illegal immigrants.
In it he wrote: 'A patriot must be always be ready to defend his country from his enemies and their government-He also said all illegal immigrants should be sent home.
Earlier, Gavan admitted 22 charges relating to the manufacture and possession of improvised explosive devices, firearms and ammunition plus six offences under the Terrorism Act.
He also admitted the possession of a weapons manual. Sentencing him at the Old Bailey Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said: 'The explosives, firearms, ammunition and books and computer files were amassed by you over a period of ten years.
'This represents ten years of continual and continuous serious offending.'
Anti-terror Detective Chief Superintendent-David Buxton said: 'Gavan was an extremely dangerous and unpredictable individual,' who used his extensive knowledge to manufacture and accumulate devices capable of causing significant injury or harm.
'As such he posed a very clear risk to public safety.'
Thai police officers and soldiers surround a suspect foreign-registered cargo plane to make a search at Don Muang airport Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand. Five foreigners were detained and their foreign-registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital Saturday with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea, Thai media quoted officials as saying
Detained foreigners who declined to give names are led by a Thai police officer, left, to the interrogation room at the crime suppression division office Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand. Five foreigners, four Kazachstan citizens and a man from Belarus, were detained and their foreign-registered aircraft impounded after it landed in the Thai capital Saturday with tons of war weaponry on board that originated in North Korea, Thai officials said
Five foreigners who crewed an aircraft carrying about 35 tons of weapons originating in North Korea have been charged with illegal possession of arms in Thailand, police said Sunday.
The men — four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus — were detained when an Ilyushin 76 transport plane, carrying explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles, was impounded Saturday during a refueling stop at Bangkok's Don Muang airport, Thai officials said.
Thai authorities took the action because of a United Nations resolution banning the transport of certain weapons from or to North Korea, the Foreign Ministry said.
Police Col. Supisarn Pakdinarunart said the men denied the arms possession charges and were refused bail. They will appear in court Monday.
Air Force spokesman Capt. Montol Suchookorn said the chartered cargo plane originated in North Korea's capital Pyongyang and requested to land at Don Muang airport to refuel.
There were differing local media reports about the plane's destination with some saying it was headed to Sri Lanka and others saying Pakistan.
"I cannot disclose the destination of their plane because this involves national security. The government will provide more details on this," Supisarn said.
North Korea has been widely accused of violating United Nations sanctions by selling weapons to nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The latest U.N. sanctions were imposed in June after the reclusive communist regime conducted a nuclear test in May and also test-fired ballistic and other missiles. The sanctions were aimed at derailing North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but also banned the North's sale of any conventional arms.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said Thailand made the seizure because of the U.N. resolution.
"Once further details have been finalized, and all the proper checks have been made we will report all details to the United Nations sanctions committee," he said.
Local press reports said Thai authorities were tipped off by their American counterparts about the cargo aboard the aircraft. U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Turner said the embassy would not comment on the incident.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said it would take several days to obtain details on the incident, which would be reported to the United Nations, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
"People should not be alarmed because the government will ensure that the investigation will be carried out transparently. The government will be able to explain the situation to foreign countries," Suthep said.
Thai authorities said the weapons were moved by trucks amid high security Saturday night from the airport to a military base in the nearby province of Nakhon Sawan.
Experts in Seoul, South Korea, noted that the seizure came days after President Barack Obama's special envoy made a rare three-day trip to North Korea on a mission to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
Envoy Stephen Bosworth said the two sides had reached common understandings on the need to restart the talks.
"There is a possibility that the incident could have a negative effect on moves to get the North to rejoin the six-party talks and a U.S.-North Korea dialogue mood," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
Baek Seung-joo of the state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said the seizure demonstrated a U.S. intention to continue to enforce sanctions on the North while also engaging in dialogue.
Arms sales are a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North. Baek said the North is believed to have earned hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries like Iran, Syria and Myanmar.
In August, the United Arab Emirates seized a Bahamas-flagged cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up.
