Several sanctioned North Korean vessels passed very near Chinese ports over the last five days, the NK News ship tracker shows.

Under the newest UN resolution passed on March 2, it is against North Korean sanctions to allow 27 ships listed in the document into any port.

The ships included in Resolution 2270 were members of the North Korean fleet linked to Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a Pyongyang based shipping company known to aid in the DPRK’s weapons smuggling programs.

“(The) vessels specified in Annex III of this resolution are economic resources controlled or operated by OMM and therefore subject to the asset freeze imposed in paragraph 8 (d) of resolution 1718 (2006), and underscores that Member States are required to implement the relevant provisions of that resolution,” paragraph 23 reads.

Yet despite the sanctions one of the ships on the list appeared to be leaving the Chinese port of Longkou on Sunday, according to ship tracking website Marine Traffic.

The ship, called the Ryo Myong, broadcast only a small of amount of positional data near the port, before disappearing from tracking systems.

The Ryo Myong’s position. Image: Marine Traffic

The ship’s position does not actually show the Ryo Myong in the Chinese port or when it arrived there, though it does it is only a very short distance from Longkou.

Longkou Port Authority could not be reached for comment on the news.

Other North Korean vessels also appeared to be heading to or from Chinese waters over the last few days.

The Tong Hung 1 passed Longkou port heading southwest on June 23, with a heading that would take the vessel into China’s Laizhou Bay. Like the Ryo Myong, the ship broadcast only a small amount of location information before disappearing off Marine Traffic’s tracking system.

The Tong Hung 1’s position. Marine Traffic

A third sanctioned ship called the Ra Nam 2 also appeared to be leaving Chinese waters heading east towards Nampho. The ship briefly broadcast its position south of China’s Dalian port on Sunday, before also disappearing.

All three vessels are North Korean flagged cargo ships.

Other vessels on the UN’s blacklist also appear to becoming more active after keeping a low profile since March. The DPRK has apparently employed some of the vessels to move between domestic ports.

The ships take a relatively long route, generally sticking to long stretches of open, international waters though have occasionally passed close to Japanese and South Korean islands.

One vessel, the Thae Pyong San, has twice returned to Wonsan on the DPRK’s east coast in recent months, though where it returned from is not clear.

Featured Image: Сухогруз / Dry cargo ship by s☼vraskin_k on 2014-08-09 09:48:58