A cargo plane full of North Korean weapons, detained in Thailand after an emergency landing at Bangkok airport, was bound for Ukraine, the Thai news agency TNA reported on Sunday.

Thai authorities on Saturday seized about 40 tons of weapons from an Il-76 cargo plane they said had come from North Korea after it landed for refueling at Bangkok's Don Muang airport, and arrested its five crew members.

The aircraft's weapons arsenal included missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.

According to TNA, the plane's crew commander, a Belarusian national, said during a six-hour interrogation at the Thai crime police department that the plane had flown from Ukraine and loaded weapons in North Korea.

The plane's commander said the aircraft refueled in Azerbaijan, then in the United Arab Emirates and after that in Thailand while en route to Pyongyang. On its way back, the plane was intended to refuel in Thailand and Sri Lanka, following which the cargo was expected to be delivered to Ukraine, TNA reported.

The plane's commander claimed that neither he, nor the other crewmembers who are Kazakh nationals knew about the military nature of the cargo.

That authorities accuse the crew of the plane, which is registered in Georgia, of illegal storage and transportation of weapons and misinformation, TNA reported.

The news agency also said the Thai authorities were preparing a report for the United Nations on the arrest of a plane with North Korean weapons on its board.

BANGKOK, December 13 (RIA Novosti)