US seizes, then releases missile shipment from North Korea to Yemen

WASHINGTON -- Ending an embarrassing faceoff with Yemen, Bush administration officials said Wednesday they secured an agreement from the Arab nation to no longer buy Scud missiles from North Korea.\nBut the understanding was not reached until after the United States was forced to release to Yemen a vessel containing North Korean-made missiles.\n"We have no choice but to obey international law," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "What Yemen has done does not provide a threat to the United States. We do have ongoing concerns about North Korea's efforts to sell arms around the world."\nFleischer said the Bush administration will use the incident to strengthen treaties and international agreements dealing with the proliferation of missiles. Bush ordered his nonproliferation experts to begin working on ways to close gaps in international laws that already curb nuclear, biological and chemical sales, administration officials said.\nForces from the amphibious assault ship USS Nassau had been aboard the detained vessel since Tuesday awaiting orders on what to do with it and the weapons, Pentagon officials said.\nThe incident underscored the challenges Bush faces in the war on terrorism, when the lines dividing allies from potential enemies are often blurred. Yemen is a haven for terrorists, including Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, but the government has pledged to help Bush fight terrorism in the Middle East.\nTwo senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Yemen had recently agreed in principle to stop buying missiles from North Korea but that the agreement had not taken effect before the incident.\nOn the missiles the U.S. released Wednesday, Fleischer said Yemen promised not to turn them over to anybody else.\nFleischer said U.S. intelligence had identified the ship and its cargo from early on in its voyage, and knew it was headed somewhere in the Middle East. He said the United States feared a rogue nation might be the destination; officials said privately Iraq was a possibility.\n"Yemen is an ally of the United States, in that sense it does not provide a threat to the United States," Fleischer said.\n"Yemen is doing everything it can to help us on the war on terrorism," the spokesman said.\nStill, it was clear U.S. officials were disappointed in Yemen's actions. Fleischer was asked why the vessel flew no national flag and why the missiles were hidden aboard the ship. He tersely referred the last question to Yemen.\nThere was disagreement inside the administration over whether Yemen had broken its word.\nDefense officials said the shipment -- 15 missiles as well as missile parts and fuel -- violated an agreement Yemen made with the United States not to buy such equipment from North Korea, which Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has called the world's worst missile proliferator. Other officials, including a consensus inside the White House, said Yemen did not violate the agreement.\nA Yemeni official told The Associated Press in San'a that Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kerbi summoned U.S. Ambassador Edmund J. Hull to protest the seizure and ask for the return of the equipment, which was for "defensive purposes."\nIntelligence officials had tracked the vessel for weeks and the Spanish military stopped it Monday as it sailed 600 miles off the Horn of Africa, without a flag designating its country of origin. The weapons were hidden under a cargo of cement and crew members initially lied about their identity, saying they were Cambodian, officials said.\nThe seizure came in an interdiction operation that is part of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, officials said, adding that they feared that the weapons were destined for a terrorist state.\nThe decision to release the missiles came after discussions with Yemeni officials by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney, Fleischer said.\n"We have looked at this matter thoroughly. There is no provision under international law prohibiting Yemen from accepting delivery of missiles from North Korea. While there is authority to stop and search, in this instance there is no clear authority to seize the shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen and therefore the merchant vessel is being released," Fleischer said.\nThe Yemenis have given the United States assurances that they will not transfer the missiles to anyone, Fleischer said.\nThe Bush administration in August imposed sanctions on the North Korean company Changgwang Sinyong Corp. for selling Scud missile parts to Yemen. At that time, U.S. authorities asked Yemen why it bought the parts, and that country apologized and promised not to do so again, two defense officials said Wednesday.\nThe shipment seized Monday was destined for Yemen's army, Pentagon officials said.\nNorth Korea was officially silent about the interception but said it had the right to develop weapons to defend itself.\n"It is necessary to heighten vigilance against the U.S. strategy for world supremacy and 'anti-terrorism war,'" the North's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in an editorial. "All countries are called upon to build self-reliant military power by their own efforts."\nYemen has been a nominal ally in the global war on terrorism despite strained relations with Washington. Yemen is Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland, was the site of the bombing of a U.S. warship and has vast lawless areas where al Qaeda members and other terrorists are believed to hide out.\nNorth Korea shocked U.S. officials by admitting in October that it had a secret program to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons. The Bush administration has vowed to try to solve the problem through diplomacy, though Bush already had named North Korea as part of a three-nation "axis of evil" and administration officials have worried that the reclusive Communist dictatorship has become a "missiles-R-us" seller to countries such as Iran and Libya.\nThe ship carrying the missiles was stopped by two vessels from the Spanish navy participating in Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led global anti-terrorism coalition, said Alberto Martinez Arias, a spokesman for Spain's Defense Ministry in Madrid.\nCrews from the Spanish ships Navarra and Patino stopped the unflagged ship Sosan east of the island of Socotora and called U.S. authorities for assistance, Martinez said. The Spanish navy stopped and boarded the ship after its crew refused to identify themselves.\nYemen's port of Aden was the site of the October 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 sailors.\n__\nAssociated Press reporters Matt Kelley and Ron Fournier contributed to this report.