유엔 전문가 패널 "북한 무기수출회사, 이란서 활동 계속"
International sanctions on North Korea and its nuclear weapons program don't appear to have stopped the regime from selling its arms overseas, importing large amounts of oil, or exporting coal.
Our Kim Dami has more.
An independent panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions issued an interim report on Monday local time... showing that despite sanctions, North Korea is still selling weapons to Iran.
North Korea's weapons export company KOMID has been included on the UN sanctions list since 2009,.... yet a representative of KOMID is reported to be still working in Iran.
North Korea is known to use the firm to export equipment for ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.
The report also said that North Korea is importing more refined oil than the 500-thousand barrels a year allowed under UN sanctions.
The North is reported to have imported between 600-thousand and 1-point-6 million barrels of refined oil from Russia and China in the first five months of this year alone, something which both Beijing and Moscow have denied.
North Korea has also been continuing its illegal maritime coal exports, and several ship-to-ship coal transfers have been spotted on satellite images.
One panel member also said Pyeongyang illegally exported coal 33 times between the start of January and May 7th this year.
The regime temporarily stopped exporting coal between late January and early March when COVID-19 was the most severe,... but resumed exports in late March.
The report also says that North Korea might have developed miniaturized nuclear devices to fit on the warheads of its ballistic missiles.
The panel believes the North's six nuclear tests have made such miniaturization possible.
One country even assessed that North Korea may seek to further develop miniaturization for multiple warhead systems.
The report further added that hundreds of North Korean laborers are earning foreign currency abroad in a range of industries from IT to restaurants.
To avoid UN sanctions, the workers are active as freelancers under illegal names.
Kim Dami, Arirang News.
