The United States accused North Korea on Thursday of breaching a UN sanctions cap on refined petroleum by making illicit transfers between ships at sea, according to a document seen by Reuters, and demanded an immediate end to all sales of the fuel.
The United States submitted the complaint to the UN Security Council North Korea sanctions committee. The charge of a sanctions breach comes as Washington engages North Korea in a bid to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
The North Korea UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the US accusation. North Korea relies on imported fuel to keep its struggling economy functioning.
The United States said that as of May 30, there had been 89 illicit ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products this year.
The United States did not broadly say which countries it believed were illicitly providing North Korea with refined petroleum. But it does mention one case of a ship-to-ship transfer involving a Russian-flagged ship and one case involving a Belize-flagged ship.
Reuters in December reported that Russian tankers had supplied fuel to North Korea by transferring cargoes at sea.
The 15-member…
