A French naval vessel recently carried out surveillance against illegal North Korean ship-to-ship transfers around Japan, reflecting Paris’ commitment to monitoring sanctions violations after dispatching a patrol aircraft for the same purpose last month.

The French navy frigate FS Prairial took part in multilateral efforts to monitor North Korea’s illicit maritime activities in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions from late October to late November, Tokyo’s foreign ministry announced in a press release on Monday.

This marks the Prairial’s third visitto Japan to monitor DPRK sanctions evasion activities, and the sixth time that a French ship has participated since