U.S. Destroyer Shadows N. Korean Ship

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U.S. Destroyer Shadows N. Korean Ship

By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: June 21, 2009


SEOUL — A North Korean cargo ship was reportedly steaming toward Myanmar on Sunday even as it was shadowed by a United States. Navy destroyer, posing the first test of how far the United States and its allies would go under a new United Nations resolution to stop the North’s suspected arms trade.

The United States began tracking the 2,000-ton Kang Nam after it left Nampo, a port near Pyongyang, on Wednesday. American 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.

Over the weekend, the North’s state-run news media vowed in its usual rhetorical tone, to “respond to sanctions with retaliation.” It also threatened “unlimited retaliatory strikes” against South Korea if it cooperated in American-led sanctions.

YTN, a news cable channel in South Korea, reported on Sunday that the Kang Nam 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.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/world/asia/22korea.html?hp