North Korea may have received more than one million barrels of oil from Russia in violation of UN sanctions over an eight-month period this year, according to an analysis of satellite images published by the UK-based non-profit research group Open Source Centre and the BBC on Friday, the 22nd of November, according to Reuters and the British broadcaster BBC.
Since March, empty North Korean oil tankers have visited the Russian Far Eastern port of Vostochny 43 times and left almost full.
“Dozens of high-resolution satellite images, AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and images released by maritime patrol missions tasked with monitoring North Korea’s actions against UN sanctions violations show North Korean tankers repeatedly loading at the oil terminal at the Russian port of Vostochny,” the Open Source Centre report said, adding that the Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
North Korea has continued to illegally import oil products in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, according to the UN Security Council.
North Korea is the only country in the world that is not allowed to buy oil on the free market. Under UN Security Council restrictions imposed in connection with North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, Pyongyang cannot import more than 500 000 barrels of oil a year.
North Korea supplies Russia with troops and weapons for the war in Ukraine, while Russia supplies North Korea with oil, thus reinforcing its stability despite sanctions,
according to experts and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Pyongyang and Moscow have strengthened diplomatic and economic ties, including military cooperation and have signed a defence pact. Military cooperation between the two countries has caused international alarm and Washington, Kyiv and Seoul have condemned the North for sending military equipment and more than 10 000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
Tensions in the war have escalated with Ukraine reportedly firing British Storm Shadow missiles at Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday and US ATACMS missiles at Russia on Tuesday, after receiving permission from outgoing US President Joe Biden earlier in the week for Kiyv to use US-supplied missiles for targets inside Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday the use of a new type of hypersonic medium-range missile against Ukraine in response to the use of US and British missiles by Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the strike on the central city of Dnipro with a new type of ballistic missile was a “clear and grave escalation” in the war and called on the world to strongly condemn it.
“The use of a ballistic missile against Ukraine today is further proof that Russia is not interested in peace,” he wrote on X.