▲ North Korea's Nampho port is seen in this satellite imagery provided by the Seoul-based Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

N Korea-coal exports

N. Korea's port activity jumps fivefold since 2019, suggesting illicit coal trade: report

SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- Commercial vessel activity at North Korea's ports has surged fivefold since 2019, a report said Tuesday, raising fresh suspicions of illegal coal trading.

The report, co-published by the Seoul-based Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and British research group Data Desk, tracked vessels longer than 80 meters at North Korea's five major ports -- Nampho, Chongjin, Wonsan, Rason and Kimchaek. Recorded activity climbed to 3,756 cases last year, up from 783 in 2019.

Nampho, North Korea's largest coal export hub, saw the sharpest rise with more than 3,000 cases last year, up from 554 in 2019.

The findings were based on satellite imagery of the ports combined with AIS data -- the digital location signals sent by ships.

One key detail in the report is that only between 14 and 33 percent of vessels visible in satellite photos appeared in AIS records -- a gap the report says points to ships deliberately going dark to evade detection.

North Korea's coal exports have been banned outright since the United Nations passed Resolution 2371 in 2017. The ban, however, has not stopped the trade, the report claimed.

The surge has been especially pronounced among vessels already under U.N. sanctions, with cases involving such ships reaching 91 last year, the highest in 11 years, according to the report.

It traced this spike to the collapse of U.N. oversight after Russia vetoed the renewal of the Security Council panel monitoring North Korea's sanctions violations in 2024. The report also attributed this widening loophole to deepening cooperation among Pyongyang, Beijing and Moscow.

It flags a telling signal as well: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's call to modernize the coal industry suggests Pyongyang sees real room to expand it.

At a key party meeting last week, North Korea named coal as a strategic pillar of the economy, calling for a nationwide overhaul of the sector and its mining communities.

At the meeting, Kim described ending the industry's "centuries-old backwardness" as a matter of "weighty significance."

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