[VOA 뉴스] North Korea’s ship-to-ship transfer situation… Also captured in the north of Chodo

Suspects of ship-to-ship transshipment in the West Sea of ​​North Korea continue to be detected. This time, it was also detected not in the south of the island, but also in the north, and including this case in which several ships over 100 meters were mobilized, the number of suspected transshipments captured by VOA this year is 26. Reporter Ham Ji-ha reports. (Video editing: Lee Sang-hoon)

This is a satellite image of ‘Planet Labs’ on the 7th, which was taken in the northwest sea of ​​Chodo, North Korea.

You can see a scene where a 105m long ship and two 85m long ships are in close contact with a 45m long ship in between.

About 500m to the east of this point, a 105m long and a 45m vessel are working side by side.

In this area alone, a total of 4 suspected transshipment scenes were captured in the past week, including a 100m ship’s 50m ship tangent and two 50m ships’ close contact.

Adding the two ships captured in the satellite image on the 6th, there are five suspected cases of transshipment captured in the area over the two days.

Last year, VOA found 36 suspected cases of transshipment in the area, and reported 21 cases this year. If this case is added, the total number of suspected transshipment cases this year will increase to 26.

In particular, this time, the fact that a large number of ships met in the northern sea rather than the southern part of Chodo is different from the previous ones.

Most of the transshipment vessels found in recent months were found south of Chodo, and not far from the island, but this time they all contacted other ships about 7 to 8km northwest of Chodo.

An expert panel of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea pointed out the sea near Chodo as a major transshipment site through its annual report, saying that North Korea is using a new method of transshipment between ships in its own territorial waters, not on the high seas.

Subsequently, it is said that the ship departing from overseas met a North Korean ship at this point, transshipped it, and then moved the unknown cargo to Nampo, North Korea, to avoid sanctions.

In fact, in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, where North Korea’s illegal transshipment was frequent in the past, the detection of transshipment circumstances has decreased significantly.

As the international community intensively cracked down on North Korea’s illegal transshipment sanctions evasion, it seems that the North Korean authorities changed the transshipment location to a nearby sea.

In an email sent to VOA last year, Eric Fenton Bock, coordinator of the Panel of Experts, said that the investigation into the transshipment in the West Sea was continuing, and that he was interested in what types of goods were transshipped and where the ships departed from.

At the same time, although transshipped goods may not be subject to sanctions, it was confirmed that any goods transshipped with North Korean ships are in violation of sanctions in accordance with Article 11 of UN Security Council Resolution 2375.

This is VOA News Hamjiha.