Despite a recent significant increase in overseas operations by North Korean vessels, not a single one has undergone a safety inspection this year.
Voice of America (VOA) reported that the Asia-Pacific Port State Control Committee (Tokyo MOU), which conducts safety inspections on ships, confirmed that no North Korean vessels had been inspected this year.
According to the committee’s website, the most recent inspection of a North Korean vessel occurred on September 30, 2023, when the Dalmasanho was checked at the Port of Dalian, China. Since then, no North Korean vessels have been inspected for nearly a year.
Member countries of the Asia-Pacific Port State Control Committee, including China and Russia, randomly select vessels docking at their ports for safety inspections. This process, known as port state control, assesses whether ships comply with international conventions and meet safety standards. It also allows countries to take action, such as detaining vessels not meeting the required criteria.
Before international sanctions on North Korea tightened in 2016, 275 North Korean vessels were inspected. However, as sanctions drastically reduced vessel operations, only 51 North Korean vessels were subject to inspections in 2019.
With the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, only 13 ships were inspected, just 1 in 2021 and none in 2022. Last year, inspections slightly rebounded, with four vessels inspected.
VOA pointed out that despite the significant rise in North Korean vessel operations this year, the absence of safety inspections raises suspicions that the port authorities in China and Russia, the primary destinations for North Korean vessels, are deliberately avoiding inspections.
Neil Watts, a former South African Navy colonel and member of the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts on North Korea sanctions, told VOA that the absence of port state control inspections makes it much easier to conceal details such as vessel dockings and changes in trade. He stressed that not having this information available could only be seen as a deliberate effort to hide the fact that North Korean ships are traveling to China and to obscure the frequency of these visits.