The North Korean vessel Kangnam, which has been under suspicion of transporting weapons materials to Burma, has changed course on Sunday and headed north and back the way it came, AP reported Tuesday quoting Pentagon and other U.S. government sources. The sources said the Kangnam was 400 km south of Hong Kong as of Tuesday and they did not know why the ship suddenly changed course after consistently sailing south, tracked by the U.S. Navy since it left the North Korean port of Nampo on June 17.

It was unclear whether the Kangnam had grown uneasy about being tracked by the U.S. ship, where its new destination was and whether it was sailing to a port to refuel.

Meanwhile, the New York Times, calling the Kangnam's journey "the Cruise to Nowhere," on Wednesday said there are calls within the White House to approach the ship with caution. White House officials are starting to believe that it may be out on "a fishing expedition" ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il "in hopes that the new American president will be his first catch."

One high-ranking official in the Barack Obama administration said officials were cautious of the risks of the contents of the boat turning out to be sea bass, or ping-pong balls, following heightened tensions with the U.S. government as it seeks cooperation from various countries in searching the ship. "Members of Mr. Obama's team who served in the Clinton administration remember past embarrassments, including the interception of a Chinese ship suspected of carrying chemical precursors in the early 1990s. When the ship was finally cornered, the cargo turned out to be benign," the NYT said.

Officials ranging from Vice President Joe Biden to the deputy secretary of state, James Steinberg, have cautioned the administration to go slow lest the U.S. fall into North Korea's trap. Obama has tried to distinguish himself from former president George W. Bush and stressed that there will be no measures taken that go beyond the authority mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874.