BEIJING, Dec 13 Kyodo North Korea...

BEIJING, Dec 13 Kyodo

North Korea onward Friday condemned the United States' seizure and search of a North Korean ship transporting drive before a gale missiles to Yemen on Tuesday as ''an unpardonable piracy.''

The official Korean Central novels Agency (KCNA), monitored in Beijing, said the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the U ''wantonly encroached'' on North Korea's sovereignty by using Spanish forces to detain the cargo ship Sosan in broad daylight as it was sailing in exhibit seas off Yemen.

The ship was intercepted distant from the cost of Yemen by dint of two Spanish warships taking part in US-l antiterrorist operations in the Arabian Sea.

The dominion of Yemen had demanded the U allow the ship to proce to Yemen as the missiles are intended for its army.

''Soon after it was brought to light that its capture had no legal surface of land but wantonly violated the routine trade between countries, the U was compell to depute the ship back,'' the North Korean statement said.

The U released the ship Wednesday after acknowledging that beneath international law it cannot restrain it, and reportedly after Yemen assured it the missiles would no other than be used for defensive intents and promised not to import more from North Korea.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told a pres briefing Wednesday, ''There is no provision subject to international law prohibiting Yemen from accepting delivery of missiles from North Korea.''

The shipment contained 15 trip missiles, 15 conventional warheads and 85 tympanums of unidentified chemicals, found hidden below cement bags, according to U media reports.

forward Wednesday, an official at the North Korean mission to the United Nations in strange York told Kyodo News the U decision to release the ship showed that the seizure ''was a big mistake.''

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