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By Nam Hyun-woo
The United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea may begin investigating allegations that at least two oil tankers previously owned by S. Korean companies were transferred to North Korea, which is a violation of U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang.
According to a report by Radio Free Asia, Friday, a spokesman for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "Should these allegations be brought to the attention of the committee, they will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken." Norway is the chair of the committee.
The spokesman declined to comment directly on the allegations, but was quoted as saying, "We encourage the submission of relevant information and reports," adding, "Norway takes any possible violations of the sanctions regime seriously."
The allegations were raised in a June 1 report released by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), an arm of the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank. The report said that Pyongyang had added two new vessels to its fleet for smuggling oil from China, which were previously owned by South Korean companies.
Of those tankers, the report said the Shin Pyong 5 was owned by Young Sung Global, a small shipper based in Busan, South Korea, before it was transferred to North Korea. The Shin Pyong 5, which is a 1,579 ton tanker, had been renamed Woojeong in 2019 when its last communication transmission was logged.
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| This map shows the last communication transmission by the South Korean oil tanker Woojeong on July 27, 2019. The tanker was sold to China and is now allegedly operated by North Korea after being renamed Shin Pyong 5, according to a June 1 report by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI). Captured from AMTI report |
When contacted by The Korea Times, Young Sung Global refused to comment, while an official at the company said she knows "nothing about those vessels." The official also refused to reveal the company's fleet management record or a list of its vessels.
According to Young Sung Global's audit reports, a vessel named Woojeong first appeared on its list of insured assets in 2012. Since then, the company had been reporting insurance benefits for the Woojeong until 2019 and posted no benefits in a 2020 audit report, indicating the company sold it last year.
A person with knowledge of the company said he knows Young Sung sold the Woojeong to an entity in China, but he does not know whether the tanker had been transferred to North Korea.
Under a 2017 resolution, the U.N. Security Council limits North Korea's annual refined oil imports to 500,000 barrels and demands U.N. member countries to report their monthly oil exports to Pyongyang.
The AMTI report noted that the tankers made their way to the North via South Korean brokers to China, although the brokers "were reticent to give further information on the sales." It added that the U.N. resolutions prohibit both the "direct and indirect" transfer of sanctioned materials and assets to the North, and whether or not the South Korean brokers breached resolutions may rest on what due diligence they conducted into the China-based buyers.
South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is looking into the relevance of the report and the possibility of the alleged transfer constituting a violation of sanctions.
"Under close cooperation with the international community and the U.N., the South Korean government is making efforts to abide by those resolutions," a ministry official said. "We are closely monitoring North Korea's attempts to evade U.N. sanctions."
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