North Korea continues to receive oil and export weapons illegally
The United Nations says North Korea is still violating sanctions on oil imports and exports of banned commodities.
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A ship suspected of transferring oil to a North Korean ship was seized by South Korea in November 2017. Photo:AP. |
"North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programs and continued to defy Security Council resolutions by increasing illegal oil and coal transfers at sea in 2018,"AFPtoday cited the latest report of the United Nations (UN).
The 62-page report by the UN Security Council said North Korea has increased illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products, its main method of evading sanctions, involving 40 vessels and 130 joint ventures.
The shipment of these banned products has earned North Korea tens of millions of dollars. Typically, supplying iron and steel to China, India and many other countries brought Pyongyang 14 million dollars from October 2017 to March 2018 alone.
“Financial sanctions remain one of the least effective measures against North Korea. Pyongyang diplomats play a key role in circumventing sanctions by creating numerous overseas bank accounts,” the report said.
In addition, North Korea also "tried to supply small arms and light weapons (SALW) and other military equipment, through an intermediary in Syria, to Libya, Yemen and Sudan. "The broker, Hussein Al-Ali, helped provide a range of conventional weapons and even ballistic missiles produced by North Korea to Yemen and Libya," the report asserted.
The US last month asked the UN Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee to ban North Korea from importing all petroleum products after a report that Pyongyang had received more than its prescribed fuel quota through illegal maritime transfers. However, Russia and China voted to delay the proposal for six months.
