Sanaa, Dec 14: Yemen took delivery today of 15 Scud missiles with warheads and fuel from North Korea when a freighter docked at a naval base at al-Hodeida on the Red Sea, officials said.
An international fracas erupted last week when Spanish frigates in a US-led multinational counter-terrorism force detained the vessel off Yemen's Socotra island.
The unflagged freighter So San had put in yesterday Yemen's southeastern port of Mukalla en route for al-Hodeida, 300 kms east of the capital Sanaa.
The delivery was part of an order made in 1998 for dozens of missiles, fuel and spare parts, sources close to the government said.
A Yemeni official who declined to be identified said the 15 Scuds, fitted with conventional high-explosive warheads, would be taken to a missile base near Sanaa.
Yemen on Wednesday forced the United States to beat a swift and public retreat after the discovery of the Scuds concealed under a cargo of cement provoked an immediate reaction from Washington and London.
Sanaa insisted the shipment was legal and demanded the return of the missiles, which it said were solely for defensive purposes.
Military sources said Yemen still had about 20 Scud missile launchers delivered to former south Yemen by Moscow in the 1980s.
Bureau Report
