North Korean oil tankers have been confirmed to have visited the Russian port of Vostochny at least five times recently to receive refined oil, reported The Financial Times on Tuesday (local time). This marks the first instance of oil transportation from Russia to North Korea since the United Nations Security Council adopted sanctions limiting oil exports to North Korea in 2017.
According to satellite images shared by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), as reported by The Financial Times, North Korean oil tankers visited the Vostochny port on March 7, before making multiple visits on the 10th, 13th, 14th, and 22nd of the same month. Subsequently, these tankers were also spotted at the Chongjin port in North Korea. The Financial Times analyzed that these ships all appeared to be loading cargo at berths operated by Russian oil companies.
Notably, one of the tankers that docked at the Vostochny port was the "Paekyangsan 1," which North Korea purchased last December. It had already been revealed that this vessel was involved in illegal oil transfers between ships to evade UN restrictions on oil imports. "North Korean vessels are not even allowed to enter foreign ports," said Joseph Byrne, a research fellow at RUSI. “North Korea and Russia are openly violating UN sanctions.
Earlier, the UN Security Council adopted sanctions limiting annual refined oil exports to North Korea to 500,000 barrels (with crude oil capped at 4 million barrels). Transporting oil to North Korea is only permissible in cases pre-reported to the UN. RUSI disclosed that the volume of oil transported this time could reach 125,000 barrels, a quarter of the annual allowance.
This oil transportation occurred after North Korea transported weapons to Russia. Previously, RUSI revealed that in August last year, a Russian ship carrying what was suspected to be containers of ammunition returned to Russia's Dunaj port from North Korea's Najin port. The Financial Times criticized this exchange of North Korean weapons for Russian oil as a clear example of "quid pro quo" and labeled Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, as an "outlaw state" for failing to uphold UN sanctions.
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