Australia has deployed a long-range surveillance aircraft to monitor North Korea’s maritime smuggling activities funding the regime’s nuclear and missile 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 Okinawa’s Kadena Air Base from early to mid-October to track activity including illegal ship-to-ship transfers involving DPRK-flagged vessels, the ministry said in a press release on Friday.

Japan welcomed Australia’s continuing contribution to multilateral efforts to counter Pyongyang’s sanctions evasion operations and work toward the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” dismantlement of North Korea’s weapons of