U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S. is very pleased with Thailand’s seizure on Saturday of the North Korean weapons that were on their way to a third country in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

She said that the seizure would have been impossible without the U.N. sanctions adopted earlier this year and that the move demonstrates the importance of international solidarity behind the sanctions aimed at preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Clinton said North Korea continues to attempt to evade the sanctions and export weapons around the world because that is their principal source of foreign currency.

But she said, however, that the matter was separate from the nuclear issue.