Australia has deployed a long-range surveillance aircraft to monitor North Korea’s illicit maritime activities funding the regime’s weapons of mass destruction programs in violation of U.N. sanctions, according to Japan’s foreign ministry.

A Royal Australian Air Force P‑8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is operating out of the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa from late March to mid-April to track activity including illegal ship-to-ship transfers involving North Korean-flagged vessels, Tokyo’s foreign ministry said in a press release on Friday.

Japan welcomed Australia’s continuing contribution to multilateral efforts to counter North Korean sanctions evasion techniques and work toward ensuring  the “dismantlement of