MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2019) North Korean ships with illicit coal freight have entered the ports of Japan for over 100 times over the past two years in circumvention of the UN-mandated sanctions, Japanese media reported on Friday.
Since 2017, North Korean ships, mainly Panama-flagged, have entered the Japanese ports more than 100 times, the Kyodo news agency said, citing private companies monitoring maritime routes and data from the Japanese coast guard.
These vessels have also entered the ports of Russia and China in an attempt to disguise the illegal cargo, and the port control officers never managed to detect any restricted freight on them.
In 2017, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2371 under which North Korea was prohibited from supplying, selling or transferring coal, iron, iron ore, seafood, lead and lead ore to other countries. The resolution was adopted by all five permanent and fifteen non-permanent members of the Security Council in response to the nuclear tests of Pyongyang that year.
This came on top of previous five resolutions on North Korea designed to discourage Pyongyang from further developing its nuclear program and conducting new tests.
