THE high seas ambush of a North Korean freighter was intended as a warning shot to the regime in Pyongyang.

US authorities knew they risked upsetting Yemen, a valued ally, but the Bush Administration thought it more important to seize the 15 Scud missiles on board and teach the North Koreans a lesson.

Last night Washington gave warning that there would be more raids if the North Koreans did not stop exporting such lethal weaponry.

The US is concerned that North Korea has shown a willingness to sell weaponry to anybody. The West fears that this could include terrorist groups and rogue nations as well as friendly powers like the Yemenis, who protested yesterday that the missile consignment was legally theirs.

US diplomats said last night that there was no embarrassment at the end of this bizarre saga, which has seen America hand over a cache of missiles they spent months tracking.

One senior American official said: “We hope Pyongyang got the message: ‘We are watching your every move.’”

Since Kim Jong Il boasted in October of having revived his nuclear weapons programme, the US has been waiting for the moment to strike. Satellites had followed the consignment of Scuds from the time it left the factory last month. They watched the missiles being loaded on to the freighter, So San, at Nampo harbour and shadowed the vessel on its journey.

What the Pentagon will not say is why the cargo ship was suddenly seized on Monday as she sailed close to the island of Socotora, 600 miles off the Horn of Africa.

To demonstrate that this was an international operation, Washington let two Spanish frigates take the lead. The Navarra and her support ship, Patino, are part of the US-led operation aimed at intercepting al-Qaeda agents trying to escape from Afghanistan and Pakistan by sea.

In Madrid, Federico Trillo, the Spanish Defence Minister, described the showdown in the Arabian Sea as the Navarra unleashed three bursts of machinegun fire on the So San after she refused to stop. None of the 21 crew was injured.

The real name of the North Korean ship had been painted over, so too had the registration number. The vessel was not flying a flag which Señor Trillo said meant the Spanish crew was within its legal rights to seize the vessel.

Sharpshooters on the deck of the Navarra shot out cables running from the cargo ship’s mast so that a Spanish helicopter could get close enough to land marines on the deck.

At first the So San’s captain claimed she was a Cambodian vessel but on seeing marines clambering into launches and heading in his direction he asked if he could contact his masters in Pyongyang.

The ship’s manifest said she was carrying 40,000 sacks of cement but when the Spanish crew began their search of the hold they found 20 containers.

Señor Trillo listed the haul as 15 Scud missiles, 15 conventional warheads, 23 tanks of nitric acid rocket propellant and 85 drums of chemicals.

Control of the So San was handed over to an American admiral while the diplomatic wrangling began over who owned the cargo. As Pentagon officials announced that the ship would be taken to the British base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Yemen lodged a protest.

US officials claimed Yemen had agreed not to order any more weapons from North Korea after a consignment was sent in June. The Yemenis claim they had not broken the undertaking as this delivery was part of the original order.

The Sanaa Government insisted the Scuds were for their own defence and were indignant at suggestions the missiles could fall into unscrupulous hands. Yemeni diplomats also complained to the Madrid Government. President Bush personally intervened to heal this diplomatic rift.

The final act of the day was for US officials to admit they had overstepped their authority. But in return Yemen gave Washington a solemn promise that it would not transfer these missiles to anyone, a senior spokesman said.

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