A North Korean shipping company that famously tried to hide fighter jets under a cargo of sugar later sought to evade UN sanctions by renaming most of its vessels, a new report says.
The effort by Pyongyang-headquartered Ocean Maritime Management Co (OMM) is detailed in the report by a panel of experts that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The report, obtained by reporters, makes clear the challenge of keeping banned arms and luxury goods from a nuclear-armed country with a history of using front companies to duck detection.
The UN Security Council was scheduled to hold consultations yesterday on the report, which also says North Korea’s government persists with its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of council resolutions.
North Korea’s mission to the UN did not respond to a request for comment.
The council last year imposed sanctions on OMM after Panama in 2013 seized a ship it operated that carried undeclared military equipment from Cuba. Panamanian authorities found two Cuban fighter jets, missiles and live munitions beneath the Chong Chon Gang’s cargo of sugar.
The council’s sanctions committee said that violated a UN arms embargo imposed in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
The report says that in the months after the sanctions were imposed, 13 of the 14 ships controlled by OMM changed their owners and managers, “effectively erasing” the company from a database kept by the International Maritime Organization.
Twelve of the ships “reportedly stayed, visited or were sighted near ports in foreign countries,” and none were frozen by member states as the panel of experts recommends.
The report explores the shipping company’s global reach, using people and entities operating in at least 10 countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. The report recommends updating the sanctions list with 34 OMM entities and says all 14 vessels should be subject to sanctions.
No interdictions of the kind that Panama made in 2013 were reported in the period between Feb. 8 of last year and Feb. 5 of this year, but the report warns that the panel of experts sees no evidence that North Korea “intends to cease prohibited activities.”
The report also says diplomats, officials and trade representatives of North Korea continue to “play key roles in facilitating the trade of prohibited items, including arms and related materiel and ballistic missile-related items.”
The panel said that some UN member states still are not implementing the council resolutions that are meant to keep North Korea from further violations.
The report found that the North managed to bring in luxury goods from multiple countries, including with the help of its diplomatic missions. Some items were for the country’s Masik Pass luxury ski resort, which opened in 2013.
China told the panel of experts that the ski lift equipment it provided was acceptable because “skiing is a popular sport for people” and that ski items are not specifically prohibited.
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