The UN Security Council has banned all nations from allowing four ships that transported prohibited goods to and from North Korea to enter any port.
Hugh Griffiths, head of the panel of experts investigating the implementation of UN sanctions against North Korea, announced the bans on Monday at a briefing to UN member states. A North Korean diplomat attended the hour-long session.
Griffiths later told several reporters that “this is the first time in UN history” the committee monitoring sanctions against Pyongyang has prohibited ships from entering all ports.
He identified the four cargo ships as the Petrel 8, Hao Fan 6, Tong San 2 and Jie Shun.
According to MarineTraffic, a maritime database that monitors vessels and their moments, Petrel 8 is registered in Comoros, Hao Fan 6 in St Kitts and Nevis, and Tong San 2 in North Korea. It does not list the flag of Tong San 2, but said on Oct. 3 that it was in the Bohai Sea off northern China.
The four ships were on Thursday officially listed “for transporting prohibited goods,” Griffiths said.
The latest sanctions ban North Korea from importing all natural gas liquids and condensates, and cap its crude oil imports. They also prohibit all textile exports, ban all joint ventures and cooperative operations, and bars any nation from authorizing new work permits for North Korean workers — key sources of hard currency for the nation.
Griffiths told UN diplomats that the panel of experts is getting reports that North Korea “is continuing its attempts to export coal” in violation of the sanctions.
“We have as yet no evidence whatsoever of state complicity, but given the large quantities of money involved and the excess capacity of coal in the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] it probably comes as no surprise to you all that they’re seeking to make some money here,” he said.
As for joint ventures and cooperative arrangements, Griffiths said the resolution gave them 120 days from Sept. 11 to close down.
However, “in a number of cases, the indications are that these joint ventures aren’t shutting down at all, but are on the contrary expanding — and therefore joint ventures is a major feature of the panel’s current investigations,” he said.
Griffiths also asked all nations to pay “special attention” to North Korea’s Mansudae Overseas Project Group of Companies, also known as the Mansudae Art Studio, which is on the sanctions blacklist and subject to an asset freeze and travel ban.
“[Mansudae] has representatives, branches and affiliates in the Asia-Pacific region, all over Africa and all over Europe,” Griffiths said. “They’re doing an awful lot more than producing statues in Africa.”
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