US can’t stop drugs trade so don’t expect to stop oil smuggling at sea to North Korea, expert says
Trump is not helping Sino-US ties by firing off accusations about fuel transfers in the Yellow Sea before the full facts are known, according to academic
Illicit trade at sea poses a governance challenge around the globe, Chinese experts say, after ships were found transferring oil to North Korean vessels in the Yellow Sea in breach of tough new UN sanctions.
Details of the fuel transfers – including the location and whether governments played a role – still needed to be investigated, they said.
The assessment came after US satellite images showed a Hong Kong-registered ship transferring oil to a North Korean vessel in international waters in October, and media reports said Russian tankers had also supplied fuel to the North at sea in recent months.
Twenty-five crew members of the Lighthouse Winmore – registered in Hong Kong and chartered by a Taiwanese company – have been detained for questioning in South Korea since the tanker was impounded in November at Yeosu, according to customs officials at the port.
Ship-to-ship transfers at sea of any goods destined for North Korea violate a United Nations Security Council resolution imposed on Pyongyang in September as it again tried to rein in the pariah regime.