North Korea is both prolific and creative about violating U.N. sanctions, whether it be importing luxury cars worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or dispatching its citizens to labor abroad.

Now, a newly published U.N. Security Council Panel of Experts (PoE) report compiles high-profile sanctions violations detected by U.N. member states and PoE investigation.

Beginning in Aug. 2020, NK News obtained a copy of this report and started to report on its claims.

Here’s a roundup of the key findings, which build an increasingly clear picture of a North Korea that is able to circumvent rules to survive:

NORTH KOREA CONTINUING ‘INTENSE’ DEVELOPMENT OF BALLISTIC MISSILES, NUKES

North Korea this year continued “intense” efforts to push ahead with the development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, with the PoE quoting multiple member states as saying the uranium enrichment facility in Yongbyon is still operating.

The report also stresses that Pyongyang likely now possesses miniaturized warheads capable of fitting on ballistic missiles. The inclusion of that claim, while not news to many experts, suggested that member states are now increasingly confident in affirming that the mainland U.S. is within Pyongyang’s range of fire.

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• IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS: ‘Growing scope’ of North Korean nuclear weapons shown in unpublished UN report
• IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS: How sanctions failed to stop North Korea from developing dangerous weapons tech

SYRIA INVITED AT LEAST 800 NORTH KOREANS TO WORK IN MILITARY, CONSTRUCTION SECTORS

Syria invited at least 800 North Korean military personnel and laborers to work in the country in the second half of 2019. The workers labored at a surface-to-air missile unit and worked on a project in an unspecified sector that required “more than 800 laborers,” according to the unpublished version of the U.N. Panel of Experts report.

The invitations came despite the fact that sanctions forbade the DPRK from providing foreign military assistance, and despite a U.N. order requiring all North Korean overseas workers to be home before Dec. 22, 2019.

Information provided by an anonymous U.N. member state suggests that the North Korean entities involved were Korea Haeyang Industrial Trading Corporation and Korea Namgang General Construction Corporation. 

Syria didn’t respond to the allegations.

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The IT workers were able to make $1.2 million between 2019 and 2020 as they surpassed the Dec. 22, 2019 deadline to send them home. According to a member state, China absorbed several North Korean IT workers who exited Cambodia in compliance with the ban.

NK News interviewed a Chinese employer and found that North Korean IT workers were still in China as recently as Aug. 2020.

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DPRK IMPORTS LUXURY ARMORED CARS

North Korea imported at least three custom-armored luxury cars worth nearly $500,000 each throughout 2019, and kept trying to do so in 2020.

Previous reporting only addressed two Mercedes armored cars linked to Italian exporters, but documents show that at least three vehicles were requested by shipper LS Logistica & Spedizioni SRL, who sent them on to Pyongyang.

The revelation underscores North Korea’s thriving global network and ability to source top-line luxury items for Pyongyang’s elite, despite the ongoing U.N. sanctions regime.

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SPANISH ARISTOCRAT BEHIND A NORTH KOREA SYMPATHIZER GROUP, VIOLATED U.N. SANCTIONS

A Spanish aristocrat who founded and manages a controversial pro-North Korea sympathizer group, the Korea Friendship Association (KFA), violated U.N. sanctions by facilitating a prohibited joint venture operation in 2019.

Cao de Benos allegedly introduced a European customer to a North Korean software developer team in 2019. He was named in the subsequent contract paperwork and accepted payments on behalf of the DPRK-based entity, the U.N. report claimed.

Cao de Benos also used bank accounts in his personal name to combine several thousand euros of funds received “from activities associated with the Korea Friendship Association with funds related to KNTC.”

The allegations mark the first time the U.N. has publicly named the KFA or its founder, Alejandro Cao de Benos, for breaking sanctions on North Korea – a move that may complicate Pyongyang’s relationship with one of its last remaining pillars of foreign support.

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NORTH KOREAN FOOTBALL PLAYER SET TO EARN $5 MILLION PLAYING FOR QATARI TEAM

North Korean football player Han Kwang Song has been contracted to earn more than 4.3 million euros ($5 million) playing for the Al-Duhail Sports Club over the next five years, the U.N. report alleges.

The PoE says they looked into Han’s January transfer from Italy’s Juventus Football Club to the Qatari team, which took place earlier this year.

A U.N. investigation revealed that the 21-year old star North Korean footballer, once described by his team as one of the “prominent talents in his country,” was paid half a million euros per year between 2018 and 2020. Han was then signed to Al-Duhail Sports Club, which is paying a total of 4,310,000 euros over the next five years (around 862,000 euros or $1 million per year). 

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North Korea’s sanctioned Mansudae Arts Studio has been linked to statues scattered across several African countries, particularly in French-speaking nations. 

The U.N. Security Council sanctioned Mansudae Art Studio exports in 2016 after investigations revealed that the studio was selling artwork and funneling those profits back to the DPRK government. The studio’s foreign branch, Mansudae Overseas Projects, was then sanctioned in 2017.

North Korean workers were also seen in Namibia as recently as 2018, according to an NK News interview with Artist Che Onejoon.

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NORTH KOREA POSSIBLY EXCEEDED ITS 2020 YEARLY FUEL CAP IN JUST ONE MONTH

North Korea may have exceeded a United Nations-imposed yearly fuel cap just one month into 2020, making 56 refined petroleum shipments between Jan. 1 and May 30 and potentially surpassing the 500,000-barrel limit even by January.

A graph included in the complaint and the report’s annex shows expected DPRK petroleum import volumes over time, with separate projections for if the tankers were 33%, 50%, or 90% full. At 90%, the cap would have already been breached by early January. At 33%, the cap would have been exceeded by mid-March.

The report included a July complaint against the DPRK from 43 countries in its annex and alleges that Pyongyang was able to overcome the 500,000 barrel cap on fuel imports via maritime smuggling from unnamed countries.

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AT LEAST 33 ILLEGAL COAL SHIPMENTS MADE AFTER LIFTING COVID-19 MEASURES

DPRK coal smugglers were able to make at least 33 shipments between late March and early May 2020, the U.N. report stated. This corroborates previous reports that the DPRK quickly reactivated its coal shipping routes following a COVID-19-related shipping freeze in early 2020.

Coal smuggling operations departed from the DPRK’s second-busiest port of Chongjin in late March. The report also states that ships at the busiest port, Nampho, largely stalled until late April, but then restarted along with those from Taean port. 

The coal-smuggling vessels were identified as the Kal Ma, Jang Un, Phyong An, Jing Hung 9, Un Bong 2, Hae Song 1, Su Song, Nam Dae Chon, and the Ji Nam San. NK News was able to reproduce the alleged path of the Ji Nam San from Taean to Zhoushan with satellite imagery.

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South Korean businesspeople who purchased artwork from a sanctioned North Korean art studio were ultimately prosecuted for violating ROK law.

A 96-person delegation from the World Federation of Korean Association of Commerce visited the controversial Mansudae Art Studio while touring Pyongyang in Nov. 2018. Several of them purchased artwork from the studio during their trip, despite an Aug. 2017 U.N. sanctions designation making that illegal. 

Upon their return to Seoul, customs found 18 pieces of North Korean artwork in their possession, according to media reports from Jan. 2020.

After the U.N. Panel asked what happened to the art buyers, a South Korean government representative said that several of the group members were “prosecuted and fined,” the report stated.

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Edited by Kelly Kasulis