China’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said several North Korean ships were allowed to dock at a Chinese coal port for humanitarian reasons, following a report from NK News a day earlier.
Since the publication of the article, two additional vessels were allowed to enter Jingtang port – including one that is sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), data from ship-tracking service Marine Traffic shows.
“As for some later reports claiming that some vessels might dock at Chinese ports, the thing is that if these vessels continue sailing on sea or drifting outside the ports, the crew members will encounter difficulties that warrant our humanitarian help,”
“However, China is serious in implementing the [UN’s] released notice. Never will there be a case when the notice or the Security Council resolutions are violated,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
While CNN reports that some of the ships have been waiting outside the port since February, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not elaborate on the humanitarian difficulties the vessels were experiencing, or what warranted six ships entering the port in northeast China almost simultaneously.
It is also unclear why the ships did not sail back to North Korea if conditions aboard were becoming challenging. Traveling at their average speed, the vessels could make the return journey to the DPRK’s Nampho port in approximately 40 hours.
Two of the vessels, which left the Chinese coal facility on Friday had already covered nearly half of the trip back to the DPRK at the time of publishing.
The Miyang 5’s journey over the last 15 days. Image: Marine Traffic
A further complication arises from the arrival of another North Korean vessel outside the Chinese port on Friday morning.
The 3600-tonne Miyang 5’s journey most recent journey has seen it leave Jingtang port, return to North Korea, before again arriving at the Chinese port over the course of 15 days, though the ship’s cargo is unclear from ship-tracking data alone.
Like it’s predecessors, the Miyang 5 has several links to some of the DPRK’s less reputable maritime elements. It’s current owner, the Pyongyang-based Miyang Shipping has previously managed or owned two ships highlighted in numerous UN Panel of Experts reports for trying to obscure their connections to North Korea.
According to Port State Control (PSC) records, none of the North Korean ships which entered Jingtang port were inspected to ascertain their condition, though inspections are not mandatory.
Featured image: Chinese Foreign Ministry
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