The U.K. has deployed a vessel near Japan to help monitor North Korea’s suspected maritime sanctions evasion, marking its latest effort to enforce U.N. restrictions amid concerns about Pyongyang’s weapons programs and illegal ship-to-ship transfers.

The Royal Navy’s HMS Spey offshore patrol vessel “conducted monitoring and surveillance activities against illicit maritime activities, including ship-to-ship transfers with North Korean-flagged vessels prohibited by the United Nations Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs), in waters surrounding Japan,” according to a statement from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday. 

The deployment earlier this month marked the 13th time since 2018 that a British naval vessel