U.S. Vessels Intercept Two North Korean Ships Carrying Weapons Materials

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on May 31 that the U.S. has detected 11 incidents involving the spread of weapons of mass destruction over the last nine months.

At the ceremony of the two-year anniversary of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), attended by diplomatic envoys from approximately 60 countries including the countries participating in the PSI, Rice stated the above mentioned matter.

The PSI was launched in 2003 and is a U.S.-led move that permits a “specific country” to raid or seize a ship en route in order to prevent equipment and materials for developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, and missiles from circulating.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher added at a regular briefing, which was held immediately after the ceremony, that among the 11 cases announced by Rice, two cases were related to North Korea, and more than two cases were related to Iran.

Spokesman Boucher remarked, “The U.S. has prevented the materials used in producing chemical weapons from entering North Korea through bilateral cooperation with other countries, and it also blocked the inflow of other materials in the nuclear program into North Korea.”

Jong-Koo Yoon Seung-RyunKim jkmas@donga.com srkim@donga.com