WASHINGTON (CNN) -- About a dozen Scud missiles were found aboard a ship that was stopped by a Spanish frigate after it fired warning shots to keep the ship from fleeing, U.S and Spanish authorities said. The ship now sits under the watchful eyes of a number of warships in the Indian Ocean and weapons experts don't want to move the vessel to port until its explosive cargo can be stabilized.
Although the ship did not have a flag, a senior aide to the Spanish defense minister said its crew was North Korean. The ship had been monitored by U.S. intelligence since leaving North Korea.
The ship was stopped during a coalition maritime intercept several hundred miles off the coast southeast of Yemen in the Indian Ocean. (View map)
Pentagon officials believe the ship was headed to the Horn of Africa.
The Spanish official said the crew from the frigate Navarra warned the vessel -- called the So San -- to stop, but it sped up instead. The crew then fired the warning shots.
Once the ship stopped, about a dozen armed Spanish naval inspectors flew over by helicopter and boarded it.
The Spanish crew found containers buried in cement in the ship's cargo hold.
When the inspectors opened one container, they found what appeared to be missile parts, officials said. The Spanish crew then called for assistance from the United States, and a U.S. explosives ordnance disposal team went on board.
As to ownership or nationality of the ship, a senior official told CNN it appears to be a "stateless vessel" and said there was not much in the way of official paperwork on the ship.
U.S. intelligence had been monitoring the ship since it left North Korea several days ago headed for the Arabian Sea region, Pentagon officials said.
Scuds are the type of ballistic missiles that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used to attack both Saudi Arabia and Israel during the Persian Gulf War.
But U.S. officials said there is no belief that the ship was headed to Iraq. They said there was every suggestion that the ship, with its cargo of potential weapons of mass destruction, was headed to the Horn of Africa.
As to ownership or nationality of the ship, a senior official told CNN it appears to be a "stateless vessel" and said there was not much in the way of official paperwork on the ship.
News of the ship's interception came amid increased tension between the United States and North Korea. In October, North Korea acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons despite its 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear weapons development program.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week called North Korea the "single biggest proliferator of ballistic missiles" and said the communist nation is "a danger to the world."
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, earlier this year called North Korea a "merchant for ballistic missile technology" and said Pyongyang was willing to sell the weapons "to just about anybody who will buy."
"The North Koreans have been known to go around with glossy brochures about their ballistic missiles. They're stocking a lot of the world right now," Rice said.
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh confirmed in August that it bought Scud-C tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) from North Korea around 1999 and 2000, according to Jane's Defense Weekly.
Saleh defended the purchase as a legitimate arms transfer because his country was under no arms ban, Jane's said.
According to the weapons research organization, Yemen is reported to have about six Soviet-built Scud-B transporter-erector-launcher vehicles and about 18 Soviet-built 300 kilometer-range Scud-B missiles.
Yemen is the ancestral home of al Qaeda leder Osama bin Laden, where U.S. officials say some al Qaeda leaders may have fled after being pushed out of Afghanistan last year.
However, the Yemen government has cooperated with the U.S. war against terror and U.S. forces traveled to Yemen this summer to train that country's troops in counterterrorism.
The 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden killed 17 sailors and the U.S. State Department has recently warned Americans to avoid traveling to Yemen because the threat against U.S. interests remains high.http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/10/ship.boarding/
Although the ship did not have a flag, a senior aide to the Spanish defense minister said its crew was North Korean. The ship had been monitored by U.S. intelligence since leaving North Korea.
The ship was stopped during a coalition maritime intercept several hundred miles off the coast southeast of Yemen in the Indian Ocean. (View map)
Pentagon officials believe the ship was headed to the Horn of Africa.
The Spanish official said the crew from the frigate Navarra warned the vessel -- called the So San -- to stop, but it sped up instead. The crew then fired the warning shots.
Once the ship stopped, about a dozen armed Spanish naval inspectors flew over by helicopter and boarded it.
The Spanish crew found containers buried in cement in the ship's cargo hold.
When the inspectors opened one container, they found what appeared to be missile parts, officials said. The Spanish crew then called for assistance from the United States, and a U.S. explosives ordnance disposal team went on board.
As to ownership or nationality of the ship, a senior official told CNN it appears to be a "stateless vessel" and said there was not much in the way of official paperwork on the ship.
U.S. intelligence had been monitoring the ship since it left North Korea several days ago headed for the Arabian Sea region, Pentagon officials said.
Scuds are the type of ballistic missiles that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used to attack both Saudi Arabia and Israel during the Persian Gulf War.
But U.S. officials said there is no belief that the ship was headed to Iraq. They said there was every suggestion that the ship, with its cargo of potential weapons of mass destruction, was headed to the Horn of Africa.
As to ownership or nationality of the ship, a senior official told CNN it appears to be a "stateless vessel" and said there was not much in the way of official paperwork on the ship.
News of the ship's interception came amid increased tension between the United States and North Korea. In October, North Korea acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons despite its 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear weapons development program.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week called North Korea the "single biggest proliferator of ballistic missiles" and said the communist nation is "a danger to the world."
President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, earlier this year called North Korea a "merchant for ballistic missile technology" and said Pyongyang was willing to sell the weapons "to just about anybody who will buy."
"The North Koreans have been known to go around with glossy brochures about their ballistic missiles. They're stocking a lot of the world right now," Rice said.
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh confirmed in August that it bought Scud-C tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) from North Korea around 1999 and 2000, according to Jane's Defense Weekly.
Saleh defended the purchase as a legitimate arms transfer because his country was under no arms ban, Jane's said.
According to the weapons research organization, Yemen is reported to have about six Soviet-built Scud-B transporter-erector-launcher vehicles and about 18 Soviet-built 300 kilometer-range Scud-B missiles.
Yemen is the ancestral home of al Qaeda leder Osama bin Laden, where U.S. officials say some al Qaeda leaders may have fled after being pushed out of Afghanistan last year.
However, the Yemen government has cooperated with the U.S. war against terror and U.S. forces traveled to Yemen this summer to train that country's troops in counterterrorism.
The 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden killed 17 sailors and the U.S. State Department has recently warned Americans to avoid traveling to Yemen because the threat against U.S. interests remains high.http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/12/10/ship.boarding/