By Yi Whan-woo
North Korea is earning hard currency by selling fish abroad, exploiting loopholes of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions.
Citing Chinese customs data, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) said Wednesday that North Korea's export of fish products reached $110 million from January to August. The amount was up 70 percent from the same period last year.
KITA said the amount of fish sold to Russia in the January-March period alone was worth $2.8 million, increasing from $1.6 million over the whole of 2015.
The sale of squid, octopus and other mollusks to China hit $80 million in the January-August period.
During the same period, Beijing also imported shellfish, including shrimp and crab, worth $26 million, and dried fish worth $3 million.
Such exports come amid a series of revelations that the Kim Jong-un regime has been selling the fishing rights in its territorial waters in both the East and West seas to China.
It is estimated that North Korea earns 82 billion won ($74.3 million) annually by selling fishing rights in the two seas.
The analysts said such measures are partly attributed to the fact that fish is excluded from the list of products that the UNSC banned Pyongyang from trading.
"Fishing has been part of daily life around the world. The UNSC apparently left it in the blind spot when imposing sanctions against North Korea," said An Chan-il, the head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies.
In its latest resolution imposed in March, the UNSC banned North Korea from selling coal and iron ore but allowed the trading of other resources if they are "determined to be exclusively for purposes of livelihood."
"Pyongyang is exploiting the loopholes of the UNSC sanctions and is likely to expand the export of fish to continue pursuing development of nuclear weapons," An said.
He cited that the earnings from selling fishing rights have been diverted to the young despot.
It is also not coincidental that a North Korean fishing boat crossed into Russia's exclusive economic zone near the East Sea last week in a deadly skirmish with the Russian coast guard, according to analysts.
A North Korean crew was killed and eight other fishermen were injured after a Russian patrol ship opened fire during the inspection of the North Korean trawler for alleged illegal fishing.
"It is seen as North Korean fishermen under pressure to raise money to prop-up its regime," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
"The UNSC may need to come up with an efficient way to stop the Kim regime from exploiting daily living activities for its nuclear ambitions while ensuring that it will not deal a blow to North Koreans in general."
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