Satellite images show illegal oil sales by China to N Korea, says US
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 Oct 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 border strictly or enforce the sanctions toughly. This could be that.”
There was no immediate response from Beijing, although a foreign ministry spokesman earlier this week claimed that China “fully, correctly, conscientiously and strictly enforced UN resolutions on North Korea”. Under tightened sanctions agreed by the UN last Friday, the North Korean regime is now only allowed 500,000 barrels of oil imports a year.
The new restrictions, in response to Pyongyang’s Nov 29 test launch of a missile that it claimed could hit the US mainland, also mean that all North Koreans working abroad must return home within 24 months, cutting off a vital source of foreign currency.
On Sunday, North Korea denounced the latest sanctions as “an act of war”, threatening retaliation against countries who supported the new measures.
Russia and China, who have traditionally been reluctant to punish Pyongyang, backed the UN resolution.
However, in a phone call on Tuesday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister urged Rex Tillerson, his US counterpart, to “move from the language of sanctions to the negotiating process as soon as possible”.
He stressed that it was “unacceptable to exacerbate tensions around the Korean peninsula with Washington’s aggressive rhetoric toward Pyongyang and increasing military preparations in the region”.