Traffic of North Korean ships increases rapidly at Russian Far East ports... Suspicions of coal smuggling and arms trading

North Korean cargo ships have recently been spotted one after another at ports in the Russian Far East.

There are speculations that North Korea may be exporting its own coal by disguising it as Russian-made, or that North Korea may be shipping Russian-made coal instead and receiving food and weapons in return.

According to NK News, an American media outlet specializing in North Korea, on the 5th (local time), as a result of NK News' analysis of data from the ship tracking service Marine Traffic, at least 13 North Korean-flagged ships were captured 14 times at the Nakhodka Port in Russia's Primorsky Krai in October.

As of early November this year, a total of 17 North Korean ships visited Nakhodka Port 20 times. Although it is less than the number of visits by North Korean ships to Nakhodka Port last year, which was 33, this year, a significant number of them were concentrated in October.

In particular, NK News reported that at least 9 of the 13 North Korean ships that transmitted location signals near Nakhodka Port last month were near a coal transportation terminal.

Among them are said to be the Bukdaebongho, which is subject to UN Security Council sanctions, the Deokseongho, which is subject to sanctions by the South Korean government, and the Geumseong 7, which is subject to US Treasury Department sanctions. Eunbong No. 2 and Myeongsinho, which the United States had previously identified as involved in illegal coal trading and ship-to-ship transfer, were also found to have sent location signals from Nakhodka Port. In addition, there is also the possibility that some North Korean ships manipulated Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals to hide their actual location.

Given that North Korea is a coal exporting country, it is considered unusual for North Korean ships to appear at coal terminals in Russia, another coal exporting country.

Neil Watts, who previously served on the UN Expert Panel on North Korea Sanctions, said that there is a possibility that North Korea is exporting its own coal by disguising it as Russian-made, or is transporting Russian coal instead and receiving grain or weapons in return.

He added that North Korea has a history of using Russian ports in the past to disguise the origin of coal or to supply fuel for long-distance voyages.

Peter Ward, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, also analyzed that a transaction that launders the origin of North Korean coal is a very possible scenario.

It is also noteworthy that the cargo loading capacity of North Korean ships spotted at Nakhodka Port this year has increased significantly.

According to an analysis by NK News, the cumulative dead weight tonnage (DWT) of North Korean ships that visited Nakhodka Port until the beginning of this month reached 204,065 tons, 49 times that of last year, and the average ship length also increased from 56 meters to 123 meters. Dead weight tonnage refers to the maximum weight that a ship can load.

In the past, North Korean ships that visited Nakhodka Port were mainly small fishing boats or frozen and refrigerated carriers, but this year, it appears that the focus has changed to large cargo ships.

While there are speculations that North Korea and Russia may have begun using larger ships to respond to the expansion of trade, there are also speculations that these ships are secretly transporting weapons.

Chris Munday, a Russia expert at Dongseo University, pointed out that such large ships can transport a variety of cargo, from oil and grain to weapons used in the war in Ukraine.