North Korea still evading sanctions, says UN report

‘Global banks and insurance companies continue to unwittingly facilitate payments and provide coverage for vessels in ever-larger, multi-million-dollar, illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products.’ Banks, including US and Singaporean banks, are involved in facilitating DPRK fuel payments.

This is according to a summary of an as-yet-unpublished report from UN Security Council monitors on North Korean sanctions and compliance, according to news agency reporting.

The report also says that the North Korean regime is taking steps to ensure that its nuclear missile capability is safe from military attack, by dispersing elements of the programme across the country.

‘The country continues to defy Security Council resolutions through a massive increase in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of petroleum products and coal,’ the sanctions monitors are reported to have found. They say the scale of violations is such that it renders latest UN sanctions ‘ineffective’.

President Trump is due to meet with Kim Jong-un in Vietnam between February 27-28.