RUSSIA FLOUTED COAL SANCTIONS, SOURCES SAY

Russia has become a transit hub for illicit North Korean coal shipments in an apparent breach of United Nations sanctions, according to Western security sources.

The secretive communist state has shipped coal to eastern Russian ports at least three times since the introduction of UN sanctions to ban exports and cut off hard currency for Pyongyang to fund its nuclear weapon and missile programs.

Each time the coal was unloaded at the docks and then reloaded on ships bound for South Korea or Japan, Western intelligence sources told Reuters. “Russia’s port of Nakhodka is becoming a trans-shipping hub for North Korean coal,” said one security source. Russia Friday denied it was “a transit point for coal deliveries.”