SEOUL — A North Korean cargo ship was reportedly steaming toward Myanmar on Sunday even as it was shadowed by a U.S. Navy destroyer, posing the first test of how far the United States and its allies will go to stop the North’s suspected arms trade under a new United Nations resolution.
The United States began tracking the 2,000-ton Kang Nam after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, on Wednesday. U.S. officials have declined to say where the ship was headed and what it might be carrying but said it was “a subject of interest.”
Fox News quoted a senior U.S. military source as saying the U.S. Navy destroyer John S. McCain was positioning itself in case it gets orders to intercept. North Korea has already said it would consider interception an “act of war” and act accordingly.
YTN, a news cable channel in South Korea, reported on Sunday that the ship was headed for Myanmar, a country long suspected of buying North Korean arms and providing transit services for North Korean vessels engaged in illicit trade.
Quoting an unidentified intelligence source, YTN said that the U.S. authorities suspected the ship of carrying missiles or related parts.
South Korean officials were not immediately available for comment.
The Kang Nam is the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the resolution the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted on June 12 to punish North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.
The resolution bans North Korean trafficking in a wide range of not only nuclear but also conventional weaponry.
But it only “calls upon” countries to search North Korean ships, with their consent, if there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect that banned cargo is aboard. If the crew does not accept inspection on high seas, North Korea is required to direct the vessel to a port for inspection by the local authorities there.
Singapore, a U.S. ally and the regional refueling hub for ships, said it would act “appropriately” if the vessel docks at its ports. But there was doubt that Myanmar would cooperate with such an inspection.
U.S. officials have long sought legal tools to stop the North Korean arms trade.
In 2002, the Spanish and U.S. navies intercepted a North Korean ship carrying missile parts to Yemen but had to let it go because there was then no legal cause.
Even now, the U.N. resolution, whose wording was watered down because of concerns voiced by Russia and China, left questions about its effectiveness, a loophole highlighted by the Kang Nam’s reported voyage.
The Kang Nam was detained in Hong Kong shortly after North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and the Security Council adopted a resolution banning its trade in nuclear and ballistic missile technology. But then the ship was found to be carrying no cargo.
from the new york times
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