Ship's seizure sends warning to N. Korea

Taiwan's detention of a North Korean vessel carrying chemicals used in making rocket fuel is yet another message from the US to the North, experts say, delivered days ahead of what are seen as crucial talks in Beijing: The US and Asian neighbors will not support efforts by the Kim Jong Il regime to develop weapons of mass destruction, and its ships are under observation and could be stopped at any time.

On the basis of US intelligence that the ship was carrying substances used for a nuclear program, Taiwan authorities boarded the Be Gaehung on Friday. The North Korean ship had docked in Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan's largest port. On Sunday, Taiwan customs officers requested the vessel unload some 158 barrels of phosphorus pentasulfide. A private consultant working for North Korea in Kaohsiung said the substance is an ordinary chemical product and should not be confiscated, according to the Central News Agency in Taipei. Monday, however, the barrels were voluntarily unloaded, then confiscated.

The Taiwan interdiction is the first case of a taking of North Korean cargo following a warning by the US in June that its ships can be stopped and checked. After talks between China, the US, and North Korea ended abruptly in April, United States and Asian diplomats met in Singapore to discuss methods of interdicting North Korean ships - to block illicit drug traffic and technology used for nuclear weapons.

Now, amid intense diplomacy, six-party talks are expected to be held the last week of August in Beijing. The US has staked out a tough position, asking for a complete and verifiable end to the North's nuclear programs.

"The US is doing all it can to show North Korea that it is serious, and that the Asian nations are willing to go along in efforts to stop weapons of mass destruction," argues Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a security research center in Taipei.

"The US is making sure the [shipping] issue gets on the table in negotiations."

Yet by allowing cargo to be unloaded, the North may also be sending another in a series of "good news" messages, experts say: We are not going to create an international incident; we are ready to negotiate.

In recent weeks, North Korea has noticeably lowered the volume of its often vitriolic anti-US rhetoric. The regime is sending athletes to participate in the Asian Games in Seoul this month, and appears to be softening its image, prior to talks, in what some pundits have referred to as a "charm offensive."

The Be Gaehung's logs say it was en route from Thailand to the North Korean port of Nanpo, Taiwan news sources report. Kaohsiung, the fifth-busiest port in the world, is located on a highly strategic shipping lane that connects the Indian and Pacific oceans. The North Korean vessel was there to unload some 2,000 tons of aluminum powder before continuing to Nanpo.

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