Satellites ‘show oil sales by China to N Korea’

American reconnaissance satellites have reportedly spotted Chinese ships breaking international embargoes to sell oil to North Korean vessels about 30 times since October.

South Korean officials told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that the ships were allegedly trading in the West Sea between China and South Korea in a bid to bypass UN sanctions on the pariah regime over its ongoing nuclear and weapons programme.

“The illicit trade started after a UN security council resolution in September drastically capped North Korea’s imports of refined petroleum products,” an unnamed source told the South Korean newspaper.

The US treasury published surveillance photographs reportedly taken on October 19 of Rye Song Gang 1, a North Korean vessel, lashed to a large Chinese vessel in deep waters, apparently showing hoses transferring oil.

Ship-to-ship trade with North Korea is forbidden under UN rules, but very hard to patrol without an aggressive Chinese crackdown on smuggling.

Robert Kelly, professor of political science at South Korea’s Pusan National University, said: “There is a lot of under-the-radar on the Chinese side. Beijing does not police the bor- der strictly or enforce the sanctions toughly. This could be that.”

There was no immediate response from Beijing, although a Foreign Ministry spokesman this week claimed that China “fully, correctly, conscientiously and strictly enforced UN resolutions on North Korea”. Under tightened sanctions agreed by the UN last weekend, the North Korean regime is now only allowed 500,000 barrels of oil imports a year.

The new restrictions, in response to Pyongyang’s November 29 test launch of a missile that it claimed could hit the US, also mean that all North Koreans working abroad must return home within 24 months, cut- ting off a source of foreign currency.

Meanwhile, at least four defectors from North Korea have shown signs of radiation exposure, the South Korean Government says, although researchers could not confirm if they were was related to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

The four are among 30 former residents of Kilju county, an area that includes the nuclear test site Punggye-ri, who have been examined by the South Korean Government since October. They were exposed to radiation between May 2009 and January 2013, and all defected before the most recent test.