Coal is a major source of revenue for North Korea, which uses the money to finance the development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental b…
President Trump’s team released details of how North Korean smuggling networks run through China and Russia, as part of a public campaign to tighten international pressure on the regime.
The information, typically tightly-guarded, was obtained by U. S. intelligence officials and provided to Congress through the Treasury Department. The public display of images tracking coal-smuggling ships builds a case that Russia and China are undermining international pressure campaigns, despite voting for the sanctions packages at the United Nations Security Council.
“North Korea is using deceptive practices to mask the origin of exported coal to Russia and China, ” Marshall Billingslea, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in testimony prepared for a Tuesday hearing.
“In the first example, the ship travels from China and declares that it is traveling to Russia. During its journey, the ship turns off its automatic identification system (AIS) , probably stops in North Korea to load coal, travels to Vladivostok, Russia, and then returns to China probably to offload the coal.”
Coal is a major source of revenue for North Korea, which uses the money to finance the development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
