Connor Norton - A North Korean ship was seized off Egypt with a huge cache of weapons destined for a surprising buyer

An arms shipment from a North Korean port was recently caught dispensing Korean-made weaponry in US-allied Egypt. The ship in question was sailing under a Cambodian flag but was tracked departing with its haul mostly consisting of RPGs and cheap firearms from the communist state of North Korea. This is pretty important because it's an example of a US ally secretly trading with a country very much at odds with America and blatantly defies UN sanctions on North Korea that include limiting the exchange of weaponry, as that is one of the country's few continued economic lifelines. Though not the first incident of its kind, and blamed on unchecked outsourcing by arms businesses supplying Egypt, it has been suggested that Egypt was fully aware of its trading with NK and would have continued with the deal but not for a warning sent to Egypt by US intelligence agencies.

This is similar to the XYZ Affair of the late 1700s as the conflict associated with it arose after France caught the US, its ally, buying arms from Britain, a country it was at war with. This very closely compares to the current situation with the US and Egypt, and though we are not at war with NK, the current conflict may worsen and could be considered an extension of the Cold War just as the conflict between the British and French was an extension of centuries of fighting between the two nations. Now, the XYZ affair blew up into greater hostilities and didn't fully resolve until the signing of a peace treaty two decades after the thing began; let's hope this doesn't become so serious.