NK News reported on November 28 that a Chinese warship allegedly pursued a French naval frigate tasked with monitoring North Korea’s illicit ship-to-ship transfers last month.
The French Ministry of Defense confirmed to NK News that the frigate FS Prairial had an interaction with a Chinese naval vessel during routine sanctions monitoring operations in the Yellow Sea.
The ministry described the interaction as professional and controlled, implying that no confrontation occurred. However, they did not provide specifics about the nature of the encounter.
Earlier, the French publication Intel Corporationligence Online reported that a vessel from China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy had tailed the Prairial during its standard sanctions monitoring mission last week.
The French frigate Prairial has been tracking North Korean ship-to-ship transfer activities that violate United Nations (UN) sanctions by smuggling coal and oil since 2021, with this being its fourth deployment. In recent years, the U.S. and other nations have alleged that North Korea has been using sanctioned vessels to transfer weapons and personnel to Russia.
NK News also reported that the Prairial recently observed a high concentration of Chinese fishing vessels operating near the inter-Korean maritime boundary, an area that has seen an increase in illegal fishing by Chinese boats.
Several Western nations have been regularly deploying ships and aircraft to patrol the waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula. Both North Korea and China have consistently objected to these activities, with China particularly viewing such operations in adjacent waters as a threat to its territorial integrity.
However, analysts suggest that China’s stance also carries political and diplomatic implications, as it opposes sanctions against North Korea while maintaining relations with the regime. For example, China opposed UN Security Council statements condemning North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches last year and has not aligned itself with UN efforts to contain North Korea.