North Korea has been on thin ice with the international community for some time now, and sadly, it does not appear that trend will be ending any time soon. A North Korean missile was found on one of their ships passing through the Panama Canal on Monday, and the ensuing confrontation was far from pleasant.

Panamanian officials claim that they stopped a North Korean ship that was supposedly carrying a large order of brown sugar from Cuba. When inspectors looked to see what was under the bags of brown sugar, they found something that was anything but sweet.

"We had suspected this ship, which was coming from Cuba and headed to North Korea, might have drugs aboard so it was brought into port for search and inspection," Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli said. "When we started to unload the shipment of sugar we located containers that we believe to be sophisticated missile equipment, and that is not allowed."

At first there was initial confusion as to exactly what the inspectors were looking at. Even the Panamanian president said that he was unsure about what exactly was under the bags of brown sugar. All he knew was that it was advanced technology, but was it missile weaponry?

"Maybe," Martinelli said. "I am not familiar with that, but it would be good if such things didn't pass through Panama, which is a country that loves peace and not war."

Whatever it was, the North Koreans on board clearly did not want it to be seen. The ship's captain suffered a heart attack when the cargo was uncovered, and the 35 North Korean nationals aboard quickly became aggressive towards the Panamanian inspectors. They even went so far as to cut the cables of the unloading cranes, but could not stop the shipment from being revealed.

As for exactly what the cargo was, it turns out that it was not a missile that would be used for offensive fire, but rather was part of an elaborate missile defense system. It is still unclear what the final destination of the cargo was and what the final plans for it would have been.

"It could be equipment going to North Korea to be upgraded," said Neil Ashdown, who is a Asia-Pacific analyst for London-based defense and intelligence research firm IHS. "These would be for a high-altitude air-defense system. It's not for a ballistic system, but for a defense system."

Both North Korea and Cuba have been enemies of the United States for some time. Since his father's death, Kim Jong-un has raised tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world, most notably by making provocative war gestures against both South Korea and Japan, as well as deriding America. This latest stunt will do little to smooth over those relations.