ZCZC
BCN-29
SKOREA-NKOREA-SANCTION-TRADE-UN-RUSSIA
S. Korea firms caught importing coal, iron from North: Seoul
SEOUL, Aug 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Three South Korean firms were caught
importing coal and iron from the North last year, Seoul’s customs office said
Friday, in an apparent violation of UN sanctions imposed in August 2017 on
the nuclear-armed state.
More than 35,000 tonnes of North Korean coal and iron were imported into
the South via Russia between April and October last year, the Korea Customs
Service said, warning that “any ships that are believed to have violated UN
sanctions will be impounded or banned from entering South Korean ports”.
The coal shipments were first sent to Russia, where their details were
disguised using forged “country of origin” documents, and then reloaded on
ships bound for the South, the customs office said in a statement that
followed a 10-month investigation by the authorities.
“Korea Customs Service has confirmed seven criminal offences and it will
report three persons and three companies to prosecution authorities with a
request to indict them”, it said.
News of the apparent breach comes after a UN report last week accused the
North of evading sanctions by continuing to export coal, iron and other
commodities as well as carrying out illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil
products at sea.
Deliveries of iron and steel to China, India and other countries generated
nearly $14 million from October to March, the report said.
Last year the UN Security Council adopted a series of resolutions to ban
North Korean exports of commodities in a bid to cut off revenue to the
isolated regime’s weapons programmes.
A recent diplomatic thaw culminated in a historic meeting between the
North’s leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in Singapore in
June.
But there has been little evidence of concrete post-summit progress on the
key issue of denuclearisation, with the North attacking the US for “gangster-
like” demands of complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.
Russia and China have called on the Security Council to consider easing
sanctions to reward North Korea for opening up dialogue with the United
States and halting missile tests.
But Washington has urged the international community to maintain the
sanctions pressure in a bid to compel the regime to give up its nuclear
weapons.
BSS/AFP/HR/1255