By HYUNG-JIN KIM,
AP

SEOUL, South Korea -A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday.

The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the U.S. suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar’s military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

YTN said the U.S. has deployed a destroyer and is using satellites to track the ship, which was expected to travel to Myanmar via Singapore.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. Calls to the U.S. military command in Seoul were not answered late Sunday.

The ship is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the new U.N. sanctions.

Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, which left a North Korean port Wednesday and was traveling off the coast of China.

One of the officials said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but that it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked since North Korea defiantly conducted its second nuclear explosion on May 25. It later declared it would expand its atomic bomb program and threatened war to protest the U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear test.

The sanctions toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas “if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo” contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel “to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities.”

President Barack Obama said the sanctions will be aggressively enforced after talks Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington. Obama also reaffirmed the U.S. security commitment to South Korea, including nuclear protection.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea’s government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said Obama’s comments revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

“It’s not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion,” it said in a commentary published Saturday.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons there.

Naval destroyer following N. Korean ship

Published: June 21, 2009 at 8:06 AM

SEOUL, June 21 (UPI) — A U.S. Navy destroyer Sunday awaited orders on whether to intercept a North Korean cargo ship reportedly headed to Myanmar, sources said.

The destroyer USS John McCain began tracking the Kang Nam Wednesday in the first test of a new United Nations resolution that calls upon countries to intercept North Korean ships suspected of carrying weapons, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Stopping short of saying the ship was carrying weapons, a U.S. official only said it was “a subject of interest,” the Times said.

North Korea has said it would consider interception an act of war.

U.S. authorities suspect the Kang Nam is carrying missile parts to Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, which has been suspected of buying weapons from North Korea, the Times reported.

The June 12 U.N. Security Council resolution calls for North Korean ships to be searched with consent. The resolution says if the crew rejects a search, North Korea must direct the ship to a port for inspection by local authorities. It is unlikely Myanmar would cooperate with such an inspection, the Times reported.

The wording of the U.N. resolution was weakened by China and Russia, leaving doubts as to its effectiveness, the Times said.