Officials in Seoul say fuel transfer in October violated UN sanctions on Pyongyang
South Korean customs authorities seized and inspected a Hong Kong-registered tanker last month after it secretly transferred oil to a North Korean vessel in international waters, officials in Seoul said on Friday.
The officials said the Lighthouse Winmore was inspected when it entered South Korea’s Yeosu port on November 24, after transferring 600 tonnes of refined oil to a North Korean vessel on October 19, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Beijing denies reports that Chinese ships are secretly selling oil to North Korea
The official said the Hong Kong-flagged tanker was chartered by Taiwanese company Billions Bunker Group and docked in Yeosu on October 11 to load up on Japanese refined oil before heading towards its purported destination in Taiwan.
But instead of going to Taiwan, the tanker transferred the oil to North Korea’s Sam Jong 2 and three other non-North Korean vessels in international waters, the official said.
The ship-to-ship transfer of any goods for North Korea is a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution adopted against Pyongyang in September.
“The actions taken will be reported to the UNSC sanctions committee on North Korea in the future,” the report quoted an official as saying. “This marks a typical case of North Korea shrewdly circumventing UNSC sanctions by using its illegal networks.”
The officials said South Korea had shared intelligence with the United States for the detection of the illegal transaction.
Trump says China was caught ‘red handed’ allowing oil to reach North Korea
On Thursday, China’s defence ministry denied that it violated UN sanctions by selling oil to North Korean vessels.
The denial came after South Korean media said US reconnaissance satellites spotted Chinese and North Korean ships illegally trading in oil in the Yellow Sea between China and the Korean peninsula.
