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The United Nations Security Council headquarters in New York. (Hankyoreh archives)

North Korea imported as much as 1 million barrels of refined oil products over the past six months while skirting UN sanctions through ship-to-ship transfers in international waters, it has emerged.

According to a report on Sept. 22 by the Panel of Experts (PoE) affiliated with the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea, North Korea continues to use ship-to-ship transfers to evade sanctions imposed by UN resolutions. The PoE also published an assessment by multiple member countries stating that North Korea had exceeded the 500,000-barrel annual importation maximum set by a UNSC resolution last May. It seems that large overseas oil tankers have been directly transporting refined oil products to North Korea. The panel estimated that North Korea had imported as much as 1 million barrels in the past six months.

The report further published an assessment by member countries suggesting that over the course of its six nuclear tests, North Korea may have developed a miniaturized nuclear weapon capable of being loaded on a ballistic missile warhead. It also stated that North Korea appeared to be continuing with its production of highly enriched uranium, construction of an experimental light-water reactor, and uranium mine development activities. Various activities observed at the Sinpo shipyard in South Hamgyong Province through an analysis of satellite images and other data may be related to additional test-launching of submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), it added.

The PoE additionally reported that North Korea is continuing its coal exportation activities, which have been banned by UN resolutions. Since dwindling between late January and March amid a national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korea’s transactions were found to have returned to their levels from the previous year after the North resumed coal exportation activities in late March. The port of Ningbo-Zhoushan in China was named as a major channel for transactions. In terms of the dispatching of workers from North Korea, the report noted North Korean IT workers being detected in countries such as China, Russia, and Vietnam. The PoE said it had sent inquiries to those countries. The report also said North Korea had made cyber-hacking attempts against the PoE and officials in UN member country governments.

The report, which examined the enforcement of North Korea sanctions between February and August, did not include any information about violations in connection with South Korea.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

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