Edition: U.S. / Global

North Korea Cargo Ship Said to Elude U.S. Force

Published: March 11, 1992

A North Korean cargo ship suspected of carrying Scud-C ballistic missiles destined for Syria eluded a United States naval task force and made it into port in southern Iran on Monday, Administration officials said today. This morning American intelligence agencies reported that the ship had begun unloading its cargo.

The Pentagon spokesman, Pete Williams, and other officials said the United States would now take no action to block what it suspects is a major delivery of ballistic missiles and related equipment, which the Administration had sought to turn back both through diplomatic protest and by repeated threats that the Navy was prepared to board and search the vessel to expose the shipment to international publicity.

It was hoped that these threats, stated by senior Administration officials to news organizations through the weekend, would build pressure on North Korea to turn back the vessel and halt such sales in the Middle East.

"There's a lot of arms sales that go on in the world that we don't like," Mr. Williams said at a Pentagon briefing, "but that doesn't mean we have the legal ability to go out and stop them."

"My concern is that all the anonymous source stories have had the thing cranked up a little bit higher" than it warranted. "It was certainly something that we were keeping an eye on," he added, "but the idea that we're out there sort of beating the drum as a warning, that's never anything that I've picked up on."

The change in tone in Washington today was undoubtedly a disappointment to Israel, whose intelligence service provided the initial information on the ballistic missile shipments and whose leaders were pressing the Bush Administration to take a decisive step to halt the shipment of ballistic missiles to Syria.

Other Administration officials have advocated handling the missile issue through diplomatic channels to prevent a United States confrontation with either Syria or North Korea, since Washington hopes to keep Syria engaged in Middle East peace negotiations and Pyongyang enaged in peace talks with South Korea.

United States officials have said all along that they have no legal authority to interdict arms shipments to any country in the region other than Iraq, which remains under United Nations trade embargo. Second Carrier Questioned

Mr. Williams also disclosed today that a second arms carrier steaming toward the Persian Gulf from North Korea and believed to be carrying ballistic missile-related cargo was interrogated by radio today by the United States Navy destroyer Ingersoll in the North Arabia Sea.

The ship, an Iranian-registered carrier called the Iran Salaam, was allowed to proceed after its captain verified that it was bound for Iran with a cargo of "steel and drilling material."

The first ship, the Dae Hung Ho, evaded what had been described by some officials as a significant effort by an American naval task force and United States intelligence agencies to monitor the ship's progress across the Indian Ocean.

But officials said that some time during the weekend, the ship "dropped off the radar" and was next observed at dockside in Bandar Abbas by intelligence "imagery" from a reconnaissance satellite or aircraft early today.

Intelligence officials suspect that the missile-related equipment will be eventually loaded on transport aircraft and flown to Syria, but Mr. Williams today said that American suspicions about the cargo have not been confirmed.

The Navy did not track or stalk the vessel during its passage, Mr. Williams said, characterizing the military effort to "monitor" the vessel as "not a high priority."

Explaining how the ship reached port unmolested, Mr. Williams said the arms carrier may have changed course and hugged the Iranian coastline as it approached the Strait of Hormuz for the final passage to the Iranian port. But he could not explain why United States Navy vessels that monitor the approaches to the narrow shipping lanes through the strait did not detect the cargo vessel.

"I've said it would have been nice to find it and we didn't," he said. The defense officials emphasized repeatedly during his briefing that the United States had no legal authority from the United Nations beyond the mandate to stop arms shipments from reaching Iraq, which remains under international trade embargo. Sentiments of the Military

His statements reflected the sentiments of military officials who did not appear to be eager to use their United Nations authority against vessels bound for Iran, or to undertake a confrontational boarding on the high seas without a clear legal pretext or mandate. North Korea is not bound by the Missile Control Technology Regime, under which the United States and a number of its Western allies have agreed to staunch the flow of missile technology into the third world.

The Dae Hung Ho was suspected of carrying a variant of the Soviet-designed Scud missile known as the Scud-C, whose 310-mile range and improved accuracy makes it a greater threat to Israeli cities than other missiles in Syria's arsenal.

The second ship was hailed by the Navy destroyer Ingersoll on a standard maritime radio frequency at 9:15 A.M. local time today in the Persian Gulf (1:15 A.M. Eastern time). "The ship was hailed on the radio and provided information about its nationality, its destination and its cargo, and it wasn't boarded," he said.

Mr. Williams said that a 22-ship naval task force centered on the aircraft carrier America was in the area where the North Korean vessel slipped through the well traveled sea lanes undetected.

A third vessel, a North Korean cargo ship named the Dae Hung Dan, was being monitored by American intelligence as it steamed out of North Korean waters, but United States lost interest when they learned that it was carrying a commercial cargo to a southern African port, an Administration official said.

Map of Middle East showing the location of Bandar Abbas