The Jin Teng cargo ship will not be allowed to leave the port of Subic, and its 21 crew members will be deported, a Philippine government spokesman said Saturday.
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On Friday, for instance, state news agency KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s “nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time”.
Safety issues were reportedly found during an inspection of the vessel by the Philippine coast guard on Friday.
Three Coast Guard officials, accompanied by a dogs trained to detect explosives, searched the ship and checked crew documents on Thursday after the ship docked at Subic Bay, a former USA naval base and now commercial port, a coast guard commander told Reuters.
Tighter restrictions on North Korea’s cargo operations are a key part of the U.N. sanctions approved last week that aim to block the nation’s development of nuclear weapons. Earlier this week, the U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions against North Korea.
The latest sanctions include mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air, a ban on all sales or transfer of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang, and the expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in “illicit activities”.
Kim ordered the North’s nuclear warheads deployed “on standby” in a widely-expected uptick in military saber-rattling from Pyongyang following the UN Security Council’s adoption of tough new sanctions.
Kim also warned that the situation on the divided Korean peninsula had become so unsafe that the North needed to shift its military strategy to one of “pre-emptive attack”.
Philippines Coast Guard officials inspect North Korean freighter Jin Teng in Subic Bay in this handout photo from the coast guard on March 3, 2016.
The measures are the toughest sanctions to date on North Korea and ban or restrict exports of coal, iron and other minerals from the isolated country, among other restrictions.
However, North Korean state media blasted the new round of sanctions again on Saturday, calling the United Nations resolution a “disgrace”.
Just before the United Nations sanctions were unanimously adopted, South Korea’s National Assembly passed a bill that would establish a center tasked with collecting, archiving and publishing information about human rights in North Korea.
In the wake of the “gangster-like” UN resolution pushed by the United States and its South Korean ally, North Koreans are now “waiting for an order of combat to annihilate the enemy with their surging wrath”, he added.
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The Philippines has joined other countries in condemning North Korea for its rocket launch and nuclear bomb test, and urged it to end its nuclear and ballistic missile technology programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
