North Korea is violating international sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program by exceeding a cap on petroleum imports and sending its workers overseas, including a former Juventus soccer player, the UN said.
Pyongyang is subject to a range of restrictions imposed since 2017 that limit its oil imports and ban exports of coal, fish and textiles.
It has nonetheless continued to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal, analysts said, despite three high-profile meetings between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.
The UN Security Council on Monday said that an annual 500,000 barrel cap on imports of refined petroleum products had been broken in just the first five months of this year.
A report by the intergovernmental panel said that deliveries to the authoritarian state “far exceeded” the ceiling, based on “imagery, data and calculations.”
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and foreign-flagged vessels and their owners continued elaborate evasion practices” to illicitly import oil, UN experts said, using the North’s official name.
The report did not say which countries had been exporting to North Korea, but shipments also included luxury cars and alcohol.
China and Russia, Pyongyang’s key allies, dismissed the findings, saying that they were “based on assumptions and estimations.”
The UN report said that the North “continued to flout Security Council resolutions through illicit maritime exports of coal, although it suspended such exports temporarily between late January and early March.”
Negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington over North Korea’s nuclear program are at a standstill over disputes on sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give up in return.
The report said that professional soccer player Han Kwang-song was in January transferred from Serie A club Juventus to Al-Duhail in Qatar in violation of UN resolutions banning North Korean nationals working overseas.
“Although the panel contacted Italy and Qatar on Mr Han’s transfer immediately after the announcement, the transfer has not been canceled,” the UN report said.
The 22-year-old forward was paid approximately US$607,000 per year by Juventus between 2018 and January, it added.
He is to receive more than US$5 million over the next five years from his new team under a multiyear contract.
“The panel reiterated to Qatar the relevant resolutions concerning the case,” the report said.
The UN sanctions require member states to repatriate North Koreans working overseas, with a deadline to do so passing in December last year.
However, the panel said that “only around 40” nations had submitted reports on efforts to send back North Korean citizens.
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