A new doctrine and a Scud bust

The role of Spain in the capture of this shipment, say some analysts, also bolsters the US case of multinational cooperation in stopping weapons proliferation.

Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo said Wednesday that the Spanish frigate Navarra ordered the North Korean vessel, So San to stop its engines, and fired directly on it when its captain speeded up and sought to escape.

"The ship without a flag is a pirate ship," he said, explaining the authority under which the Spanish had boarded the Cambodian-registered cargo boat.

A multinational naval "Taskforce 150" in the Gulf area is currently under Spanish command, and the US, which had been tracking the So San since it left the North Korean port of Nam Po asked for Spanish assistance when it became clear that the ship was heading into waters patrolled by the taskforce, Spanish officials said.

When the So San's captain refused to stop, Spanish snipers shot out the vessel's mast cables, enabling a helicopter to get close enough to lower a unit of marines on board. They subdued the Korean crew without casualties, searched the ship and found 15 complete Scud missiles, 15 conventional warheads, 23 containers of nitric acid fuel, and 85 barrels of unidentified chemicals hidden under a cargo of cement, Mr. Trillo said.

The Yemeni government protested Wednesday to the US and Spanish governments. The missile shipment was "part of contracts signed some time ago. It belongs to the Yemen government and its army and meant for defensive purposes," the official news agency SABA quoted Yemen's Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi as saying.

The Spanish defense minister said the ship was now under the control of the US Navy, but the missiles may be returned to Yemen. "Right now, the ship is carrying 'undeclared cargo,' " a US defense official in Washington told Reuters. "But if they [the missiles] become legal cargo, there is not much we can do. Weapons sales between two countries are not against the law. Only Iraq is forbidden [by the UN) to buy weapons."

As of this writing, it's not known what generation of North Korean Scuds were found on the ship. The North has two varieties of early Scuds - Scud-B and Scud-C. The B variant has a range of 150 miles and carries a payload of some 2,000 pounds of explosive or bio-weapons. The smaller Scud-C will travel 250 miles.

The US State Department's top Asian official, Richard Armitage, arrived in Beijing yesterday after a visit to Seoul amid high-levels of anti-US tensions. Mr. Armitage is touring Asia on what is billed as a consultation visit to allies in the war on terror, and one likely to shape a response to North Korea, which stated in October it is abandoning a comprehensive 1994 treaty that exchanges a freeze on nuclear development for the building of two light-water reactors.

China is thought to have the greatest leverage with North Korea. Yet so far China's willingness to pressure Kim Jong Il, who will reportedly come to Beijing in the next 10 days, is not clear. Last week, China and Russia signed a joint declaration asking Kim Jong Il to halt his nuclear program, and for Washington to normalize relations with Pyongyang. In light of the seizure of Scuds in the Arabian Sea, such general expressions of good will are likely to be viewed as a weak remedy, analysts say.

At press time, no North Korean official had spoken about the interception. But the North's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in an editorial: "It is necessary to heighten vigilance against the US strategy for world supremacy and anti-terrorism war.... All countries are called upon to build self-reliant military power by their own efforts."

In the past, cash-strapped North has claimed the right to sell missile technology, and many experts agree the North is not in violation of any treaty, since it is not a signatory of the Missile Technology Control Regime.

In 1999 the North agreed to a moratorium on testing long range missiles it has under development.Some US military sources say the North's chemical and biological weapons program is the "most troubling" aspect of the regime. Pyongyang is estimated to have 5,000 tons of agents stockpiled - including VX nerve gas and sarin gas.

• Staff writer Howard LaFranchi contributed to this story from Washington.

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