U.S. May Halt N. Korean Ship for Arms Check

President Bush said Saturday that he is “contemplating options” as the U.S. Navy prepared plans to halt a North Korean ship believed to be carrying ballistic missiles to Iran or Syria.

In an escalation of a diplomatic standoff with North Korea, officials said that U.S. warships operating under U.N. charter could be ordered as early as today to intercept and board a North Korean ship, the Dae Hong Ho, in the Indian Ocean as it approaches the Middle East to deliver its cargo.

With the ship under close surveillance by U.S. and other intelligence agencies for weeks, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, traveling with President Bush on a campaign swing through the South, said that “we have an idea” what the vessel is carrying. A challenge inspection would show conclusively whether the cargo is Scud missiles, as the United States suspects despite North Korea’s denials, officials said.

Bush, speaking to reporters in Florida, acknowledged being concerned about the shipment but declined to discuss details of the options he is considering. However, his concern comes at a time when Iran is conducting a massive buildup of its armed forces and trying to develop nuclear weapons capability. Syria is also seeking bmissile technology.

“We are worried about any kind of missile proliferation,” Scowcroft said. “It’s dangerous and destabilizing. . . . We’re doing what we can.”

Bush would say only that he is “always contemplating options.”

As many as 50 U.S. warships are now stationed along the North Korean ship’s possible routes, and Administration officials said the vessels are awaiting orders to halt the freighter if it sails into the Persian Gulf toward Iran or approaches any Syrian port in the Mediterranean Sea.

Officials said that they believe the ship may be headed for Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, but that Syria is also a possible destination.

The warships enforcing the United Nations’ blockade of Iraq have the authority to challenge all maritime traffic in the area, even if it is not clearly bound for Iraq, officials said.

If the Dae Hong Ho’s documents are found to misrepresent its cargo or its destination, it can be turned away on grounds that it might try to breach the international trade embargo against Iraq, officials said.

If the ship’s documents are in order, the Navy must allow it to proceed, even if doing so lets it deliver weapons to a non-Iraqi destination. Officials said that in such a case, the United States would nevertheless get “incontrovertible evidence” that North Korea has lied about its arms trade and that it is marketing missile technology in the Middle East.

“The point is, why not do it?” one U.S. official said.

The Dae Hong Ho left North Korea several weeks ago, stopping first at Singapore. In Singapore, officials said that the ship’s captain declared the vessel was bound for Equatorial Guinea on the west coast of central Africa. Officials said that its route since leaving Singapore has been more consistent with a destination on the Arabian Peninsula.

Israel, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have expressed intense concern about the delivery of advanced Scud-C missiles to Iran and Syria. These missiles, with a range of more than 300 miles and greater accuracy than those used by Iraq during the Gulf War, would increase the military threat that either nation could pose to its neighbors.

Officials said it is uncertain how soon the United States might move to intercept the Dae Hong Ho since the vessel has taken a circuitous route toward the Middle East and appears to be maneuvering to avoid U.S. warships. But if it does begin to approach a Middle Eastern port, an order to board would be expected.

As the Administration’s plans came to light, some criticism was voiced about any intended use of the international embargo against Iraq as a pretext for interfering with commerce headed elsewhere. Neither Iran nor Syria is subject to an international trade embargo, and while the United Nations has expressed alarm about the spread of nuclear and missile technology, resolutions have not been adopted to halt such transactions.

“The U.N. authority does not extend to stopping other sales to the region unless there’s some possibility they may be transshipped to Iraq, and the general law of the sea does not extend to boarding foreign ships just because you believe they carry cargoes you don’t like,” said Barry Carter, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

“What I’m concerned about is that we’re apparently using means not supported under international or national law to enforce a worthwhile objective--fighting the proliferation of these weapons,” Carter added.

Administration officials said, however, that the action would be clearly within the embargo’s mandate. Since the blockade was authorized by the United Nations, U.S. warships have challenged more than 13,000 ships in waters around the Arabian Peninsula, many not headed for Iraq. Pentagon officials said that interceptions of cargo vessels by multinational forces continue aggressively.

In the last year, the United States has been exerting strong pressure on North Korea, China and other arms exporters to curb high - technology weapons transfers, particularly to the volatile Middle East. North Korea has denied shipping Scud missiles to the region.