Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

The Philippines will impound a suspected North Korean cargo vessel docked at a port northwest of Manila and eventually deport its crew under terms of the tough new United Nations sanctions in response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests, a presidential spokesman said Saturday.

Presidential Communications Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III said the U.N. sanctions would be applied to the 4,355-ton MV Jin Teng, which arrived Thursday at Subic Bay, a commercial port that formerly served as a U.S. naval base.

“The world is concerned over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and as a member of the U.N., the Philippines has to do its part to enforce the sanctions,” Quezon told Philippine radio station Radyo ng Bayan.

“Our obligation is essentially to impound the vessel and not allow it to leave port and that the crew must eventually be deported,” he said.

A team from the U.N. could also come to inspect the ship, and the Philippine government will report to the U.N. on its actions after holding the vessel, he added, according to the Philippines News Agency.

It is the first known compliance with the U.N. Security Council sanctions, passed unanimously Wednesday, that aim to cripple part of North Korea's economy that fuels its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The U.N. resolution calls for mandatory inspections of cargo leaving and entering North Korea by sea or air, a ban on all sales or transfers of small arms and light weapons to Pyongyang and the expulsion of diplomats from the North who engage in “illicit activities.”

Pyongyang is also banned from exporting most of the country's natural resources, such as coal, which accounts for about $1 billion in annual income.

On Friday, North Korea strongly condemned the new resolution and threatened a strong response, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency. It is the "worst and most explicit international criminal act that aims to isolate and stifle the defensive and just sovereign state," says a statement of a government spokesman.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, for the second day in a row, said the country's "nuclear warheads need to be ready for use at any time," the North's official Korea Central News Agency reported Friday.

The vessel, with a crew of 21, is among 31 ships listed as North Korean owned that could be held under an “assets freeze” order, Philippine Foreign Assistant Secretary Gary Domingo said, according to the Associated Press.

Philippine Coast Guard regional commander Raul Belesario, however, told the AP that the ship's papers show that it’s a Sierra Leone-flagged ship owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands and managed by a firm in China’s Shandong province. “On paper, it’s not North Korean,” he said.

The timing of formal impoundment of the ship was unclear.

Foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose told Agence France-Presse that the ship was impounded "in compliance with the UN resolution" regardless of the results of any inspections.

Belesario, however, told the AP, that he had not received any government order to impound the ship by Saturday afternoon, but that he would do so if instructed by the government. The vessel needs to stay at Subic for about two to three more days to unload a cargo of palm kernel expeller, which could be used as farm animal feed, he said.

The North Korean crewmen have not been restricted since they arrived and showed their travel papers, Belesario said, adding there were no available records to check whether the Jin Teng has traveled to North Korea in the past, according to the AP.

Coast guard personnel with two bomb sniffer dogs boarded the vessel Thursday after it arrived from Indonesia. The inspectors did not find any suspicious materials, but spotted minor safety deficiencies, including missing fire hoses, a corroded air vent and electrical switches without insulation.

The ship was scheduled to to sail next to southwestern China’s Zhanjiang port, Belesario said.

Asked about the ownership issue, Domingo said it can be checked if the ship was using “a flag of convenience” to hide its true ownership. He said Philippine officials will meet soon to determine what to do next with the ship in coordination with the U.N.

Follow Doug Stanglin on Twitter @dstanglin.