It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? A ship loaded with Scud missiles has been stopped in the Indian Ocean. According to CNN the unflagged ship's crew is North Korean.

U.S. intelligence had been monitoring the ship since it left North Korea several days ago headed for the Arabian Sea region, Pentagon officials said.

Scuds are the type of ballistic missiles that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used to attack both Saudi Arabia and Israel during the Persian Gulf War.

But U.S. officials said there is no belief that the ship was headed to Iraq. They said there was every suggestion that the ship, with its cargo of potential weapons of mass destruction, was headed to the Horn of Africa.

As to ownership or nationality of the ship, a senior official told CNN it appears to be a "stateless vessel" and said there was not much in the way of official paperwork on the ship.

News of the ship's interception came amid increased tension between the United States and North Korea. In October, North Korea acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons despite its 1994 agreement to freeze its nuclear weapons development program.

This will help the DPRK's image in the world.