WASHINGTON, December 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The White House confirmed Wednesday, December 11, that the United States has given the all-clear for a shipment of North Korean Scud missiles to be delivered to Yemen following high-level discussions, as two top U.S. officials talked with Yemeni leader on intercepted missiles.

"While there is authority [under international law] to stop and search [the vessel] in this instance, there is no clear authority to seize the shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen and therefore the merchant vessel is being released," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The saga, which started when the Spanish navy boarded a vessel bound from the Stalinist state Monday, December 9, brought into question the right of the United States, or any other state, to stop and search a ship on the high seas.

Senior U.S. officials had to wrestle with the issue of their legal entitlement to detain the ship and the missiles, and establish whether North Korea or Yemen, the purchaser of the 15 missiles, had infringed international law.

The drama also underscored how the U.S. global anti-terror campaign is testing the limits of international law.

According to U.S. and Spanish accounts of the incident, the Spanish navy was within its rights under the International Convention on the Law of the Sea to intercept the vessel as it was not flying a flag or carrying identifying markings.

John Wolfsthal, deputy director of the Carnegie Endowment's non proliferation project added that there is "a legal right for ships at sea to intercept improperly flagged or unidentified ships."

Spanish Defense Minister Federico Trillo said that the crew of the So San refused to divulge their identity, though it was assumed they were North Korean, as the ship was traced by U.S. intelligence services from the Stalinist state.

But, as Fleischer conceded, there was no legal right or precedent to either detain the vessel and its cargo, or to hold North Korea and Yemen in violation of international law.

Meanwhile, two top U.S. officials held talks Wednesday with Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, on North Korean Scud missiles intercepted on a ship headed for Yemen.

AFP reported that the telephone talks between the Yemeni president and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell were revealed by an official speaking on condition of anonymity as the two countries announced that the missiles would be allowed to go on to Yemen.

The Spanish navy intercepted the freighter carrying 15 missiles on Monday, December 9, and Yemen later admitted that it had bought the missiles and demanded that they be released.

Earlier, South Korea said it would consult closely with the United States the seizure of a North Korean shipment of Scud missiles bound for Yemen in the Arabian Sea.

"The government will enter close consultations with the United States ... The United States has a position that it will closely cooperate with its allies before deciding on next steps," a senior foreign ministry official said.

He reaffirmed South Korea's opposition to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, said AFP.

Yemen later said it had ordered the Scud missiles from North Korea and demanded the return of the arms.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, on a visit to Beijing, said the seizure came as no surprise and was unlikely to affect U.S. policy.

"This is not exactly a development that is new. As I say, as a major proliferators, the North Koreans apparently have been caught," he said.

Meanwhile, some raised questions over the legal justification for the seizure of the ship in international waters.

"I don't understand on what legal grounds the United States has seized the ship," International law professor Chung In-Seop of Seoul National University said, noting that North Korea has not joined the Missile Technology Control Regime restricting missile exports.

"The burden of proof rests with the United States to show that the ship was headed for a destination like Iraq or other regions like Somalia engulfed in armed conflicts," he said.

Ryu Suk-Ryul of the state-financed Institute for Foreign Affairs and Security said that by seizing the freighter, the United States was ratcheting up pressure on the North to dismantle its nuclear program.

The hard-line U.S. policy has widened a rift between Washington and Seoul, which supports resolving the nuclear issue through dialogue in line with President Kim Dae-Jung's "sunshine" policy of engagement.

Spanish government sources said the ship was carrying 12 Scuds which were hidden under a consignment of cement.

The vessel, named the "So San," had been under surveillance by U.S. intelligence since it left North Korea last month, according to a CNN report quoting a Spanish official. The official said the navy had to fire warning shots to force the freighter to stop on Monday.

South Korean presidential candidate Roh Moo-Hyun responded to the news by urging North Korea, branded the world's top weapons proliferators by Washington, to stop exporting missiles.

"North Korea must stop exporting missiles immediately and take part in international efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said Roh.

His rival Lee seized on the reports as a chance to attack Roh and President Kim's rapprochement policy with the North.

"Reckless aid [by the South] to the North has only resulted in the North developing weapons of mass destruction," his party said in a statement.

On the South Korean internal front, reports of the seizure dropped like a bombshell one week ahead of presidential elections in which policy towards North Korea is a top campaign issue, AFP said.

If true, it could undermine the chances of Roh Moo-Hyun, the liberal candidate from the ruling Millennium Democratic Party who supports engagement with the Stalinist North.

He is in a tight race with conservative Lee Hoi-Chang, who advocates a tougher line on the North.