The South Korean military was on watch as the Kang Nam 1 headed back to its home port in the Yellow Sea, Yonhap news agency said. South Korean officials declined to comment.

Yonhap quoted an unnamed government official as saying the ship is expected to reach North Korean waters Monday morning.

The vessel, which left home on June 17, was originally reported to be bound for Myanmar but it changed course after being followed by the US Navy on suspicion of carrying weapons.

It was the first North Korean ship to be tracked under new UN sanctions imposed on the hardline communist country following its nuclear test in May.

Under the measures UN member states are expected to inspect ships they believe may be carrying banned weapons shipments to or from the North.

Pyongyang has responded defiantly to the UN move, vowing to build more nuclear bombs and to hit back against any attempt to search its vessels.

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac and his Japanese counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, will meet in Seoul Monday for talks on how to implement UN sanctions, Yonhap said.

China's chief nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, is scheduled to visit Seoul on July 12-14.

earlier related report
UN chief 'deeply concerned' at NKorea cutting off dialogue
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he was "deeply concerned" that North Korea had cut off channels of communication and dialogue during its recent escalation in missile launches.

"North Korea has now closed all doors of communications and dialogue," he told journalists in Geneva, in response to questions about whether he had been asked to approach Pyongyang following the recent missile launches.

"That's the one thing I'm deeply concerned about, in addition to the situation itself," he added.

North Korea hailed the strength of its military after it launched a salvo of ballistic missiles on Saturday into the Sea of Japan, in an act of defiance apparently timed for the US Independence Day holiday.

Ban underlined that the missile launches were a violation of UN security Council resolutions and were "totally unhelpful" for fostering renewed talks on its nuclear programme.

"This is deeply regrettable and I am concerned about all that the DPRK is doing," Ban said.

Washington is seeking support for tough enforcement of United Nations sanctions aimed at shutting down Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.

Ban noted that the problems in communicating with Pyongyang had emerged with the first missile launch.

A long-range rocket launch on April 5 was followed by the nuclear test -- the second since 2006 -- on May 25.

In the days after its atomic test, Pyongyang fired six short-range missiles, renounced the truce in force on the Korean peninsula for half a century and threatened possible attacks on Seoul.

Saturday's medium range missile launches came only days after the North on Thursday test-fired four short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.

The concern expressed by Ban -- a former South Korean Foreign Minister -- contrasted with comments by US Vice President Joseph Biden on Sunday.

Biden dismissed North Korea's latest series of missile launches, saying the communist regime was engaged in "attention seeking" as it faced increasing isolation.

In a commentary, the North Korean ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun praised Pyongyang's "army-first policy."

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