Report: North Korean Oil Smugglers Register Ships in Pacific Nations to Avoid Sanctions
According to the report, at least 17 ships are registered in the Pacific nations of Palau, Niue, Cook Islands, or Tuvalu. North Korean oil smugglers are using these Pacific nation flags to evade sanctions, according to former United Nations experts.
The U.S.-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies states that there are at least 17 ships registered in the Pacific nations of Palau, Niue, Cook Islands, or Tuvalu. The think tank alleges that it has been monitoring these vessels and observing patterns of “high-risk behavior” in their operations, which could be associated with North Korea’s illegal oil supply networks.
Former member of the U.N. Security Council’s (UNSC’s) expert panel on North Korea, Neil Watts, indicated that smugglers use “layers of obfuscation” to prevent investigators from recognizing their illegal operation while sailing.
Hugh Griffiths, who formerly led UNSC’s expert panel on North Korea from 2014 to 2019, told AFP that North Korean smugglers have been targeting Pacific registries. He stated that “North Korean smuggling networks know that these registries are not monitoring the vessels which sail under their flag.”
The U.N. has imposed a series of sanctions against North Korea since 2006 over the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests. In 2017, the UNSC restricted North Korea’s import of refined petroleum products, setting a cap of 500,000 barrels per year.
Sanctions Evasion Linked to Nuclear Weapons Program
Smuggling of coal or oil could contribute to North Korea’s military goals and its nuclear weapons development program, according to Joe Byrne, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. The State Department said last year that North Korea has deliberately evaded the sanctions “through elaborate black-market networks across the region and clandestine ship-to-ship transfers.”
“In 2021, 50 U.N. member states co-sponsored a message to the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea calling attention to the fact that the DPRK had exceeded its refined petroleum cap,” the department stated on April 15, 2022, using the acronym for North Korea’s official name.
North Korea has been ramping up tension with South Korea and the United States by testing various weapons, including its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile. Since the start of 2022, North Korea has fired more than 100 missiles.
Many of the missiles tested were nuclear-capable weapons that place both South Korea and Japan within striking distance and could potentially reach the United States.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
