On the 4th, Voice of America (VOA) reported that illegal ship-to-ship transfers that were mainly carried out in the West Sea of North Korea were also discovered in the East Sea.
According to satellite images made public on Google Earth captured by the private satellite company Airbus, two large ships, each 475.7 feet and 328.1 feet long, are facing each other in the open sea off Wonsan, North Korea.
Black objects, presumed to be coal, are loaded onto the ship’s cargo hold, and a crane attached to one ship extends over the cargo hold of the adjacent ship. It suggests the process of transferring coal.
VOA pointed out that it is unusual to carry out such a challenging operation in the middle of the sea, despite several docks within approximately 0.62 miles of the ship’s location.
Although the exact situation cannot be determined from satellite images alone, suspicions of ship-to-ship transfer are raised as they are exchanging black objects presumed to be coal, as pointed out by the UN Security Council and others in the past.
Moreover, it is noteworthy that such movements have been captured in the East Sea, rather than the West Sea, which was pointed out as North Korea’s transfer location by the report of the expert panel of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea. This is because the major ports where North Korea and Russia trade weapons, coal, and oil are concentrated in the East Sea and the Far East region of Russia, with the recently strengthening cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
The White House pointed out that North Korea and Russia have been shipping containers loaded with military equipment and ammunition at the Najin Port in the East Sea of North Korea since last year.
Through Resolution 2375 adopted in 2017, the UN Security Council prohibited North Korean or North Korean proxy vessels from receiving any goods. Regardless of the item the two vessels exchanged, it constitutes a violation of sanctions.