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The Marine Traffic website shows the crude oil tanker Yuk Tung, which breeched UN sanctions through ship-to-ship transfers of North Korean oil with North Korean oil tanker Rye Song Gang, departs from Taiwan’s Keelung Harbor in Jan.
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Radio Free Asia reports on activities of ships targeted by UNSC
Eleven of the 56 vessels designated by the UN Security Council (UNSC) as subject to North Korea-related sanctions have been operating relatively actively without any particular efforts to stop them, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Aug. 14. In its report, RFA said tracking data from the private ship movement information site Marine Traffic on the 56 vessels announced as subject to sanctions between 2016 and 2018 on the UNSC Sanctions Committee on North Korea homepage confirmed that 11 of them have been involved in continued activities until recently. According to RFA, six of the 11 ships evading the sanctions network are North Korean vessels (the Yonglim, Nungra 2, Ansan 1, Samma 2, Paekma, and Kumjingang 3). Other vessels reported as operating without constraints on their activity were registered in Palau (Billions 18), Togo (Xin Guang Hai), Panama (Hua Fu), Dominica (Yuk Tung), and Sierra Leone (Jin Hye). The vessels were placed on the sanctions list after assisting with the transportation and/or transfer of North Korean coal and oil, which is passed by UNSC Resolutions 2371 and 2375. Adopted in Dec. 2017, UNSC Resolution 2397 states that “Member States shall seize, inspect, and freeze (impound) any vessel in their ports, and may seize, inspect, and freeze (impound) any vessel subject to its jurisdiction in its territorial waters, if the Member State has reasonable grounds to believe that the vessel was involved in activities, or the transport of items, prohibited by [previous] resolutions.” RFA also reported that the vessels had operated in Chinese, Russia, Japanese, and Taiwanese waters during the first half of 2018, after UNSCR 2397 was adopted. By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
