Vodka 'bound for North Korea' to be destroyed or sold

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Dutch customs officials who discovered thousands of bottles of vodka suspected of being smuggled to North Korea say the illicit cargo will likely be sold at auction or destroyed.

Customs office spokesman Roul Velleman said Wednesday those are the options for the estimated 90,000 small bottles found on a Chinese freighter in the port of Rotterdam last week.

The fate of the vodka, discovered in a container tucked away under an aircraft fuselage, may depend on whether prosecutors decide to press charges of attempting to breach United Nations sanctions against the North Korean regime.

Neither customs officials nor the Dutch foreign ministry will say why they believe the Russian vodka was bound for North Korea.

The financial prosecutions office did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.