Satellite Image Report: Russia Apparently Delivers Oil to North Korea

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Russia's Vladimir Putin (left) and North Korea's Kim Jong Un – despots among themselves

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Mikhail Metzel / Kremlin / Sputnik / EPA

Russia doesn't really care about international conventions. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin has now apparently shown this again. As the Financial Times reports, Russia supplies oil to North Korea. According to this, five North Korean tankers were at the port of Vostochnyj in the Russian Far East in March alone. According to the report, this is proven by satellite images from the British think tank Royal United Services Institute (Rusi).

The satellite images are intended to show oil tankers with North Korean flags at the same dock of a Russian oil company in the port of Vostochnyj, where they are being loaded. Two of the ships were later spotted unloading in the North Korean port city of Ch'ŏngjin.

In 2017, the UN Security Council imposed strict oil export restrictions on North Korea - even with the support of Moscow. The background at that time was nuclear weapons tests.

Only 500,000 barrels per year allowed

The current exports to North Korea do not violate these sanctions, which limit exports to North Korea to 500,000 barrels per year. However, the ships are said to have brought up to 125,000 barrels to North Korea in just a few weeks - more than a quarter of the permitted total amount.

However, deliveries to North Korea must be approved by a UN sanctions committee. In addition, according to the report, several of the tankers are subject to UN sanctions, meaning they are not allowed to dock in foreign ports. The tankers are said to have switched off their transponders on the journey.

As the "Financial Times" further reports, citing the think tank Rusi, the port of Vostochnyj is also said to have been used as a transshipment point for suspected arms trafficking between Russia and North Korea. According to the report, it could be an oil-for-arms trade.

Reports first emerged in March 2023 that Russia had also requested weapons from North Korea for the Ukraine war. Last November, South Korea's intelligence service reported arms deliveries from North Korea to Russia.

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