The plane transporting North Korean weapons that was detained in Thailand on Saturday has been confirmed to have been headed to the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

The chairman of the Thai national security council says the plane's pilot and flight attendants, all of whom are eastern European, admitted during questioning that the final destination of the 35 tons of North Korean arms was Colombo.

The crew said that they had transported North Korean cargo via Thailand three or four times in the past but that they didn't know the shipments were comprised of weapons.

The Thai special criminal court has issued a 12-day arrest warrant to detain the crew for a detailed investigation and has rejected the bail plea requested by the embassy of Kazakhstan.

Bangkok says it plans to dispose of all 35 tons of the weapons after talks with the United Nations.