Planet Labs / BBC
Satellite images show Russian oil tankers arriving in North Korea
Images show barrels of oil sent from Russia to North Korea, breaking imposed sanctions. They will be payment for the supply of weapons. What else could Pyongyang get in return?
Satellite images to which she had access reveal what was already expected: commercial exchanges between Russia and North Korea. It is now estimated that Putin sent about a million barrels of oil to Pyongyang since March this year.
Oil is payment for the weapons and troops that Pyongyang sent to Moscow to fuel his war in Ukraine, experts and the British Foreign Secretary told the BBC, David Lammy.
“To continue fighting in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly dependent on North Korea to obtain troops and weapons in exchange for oil,” explains the politician.
Satellite images show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East, a total of 43 times in the last eight months.
According to the BBC, North Korea is the only country in the world that is not authorized to buy oil on the free market, due to economic sanctions imposed by the UN: the maximum barrels it can receive per year is 500,000 (much less than necessary — the country consumes 9 million).
While Kim Jong Un provides Vladimir Putin with a lifeline to continue your warRussia is quietly providing North Korea with its own lifeline,” he commented Joe Byrnedo .
“This constant flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced.”
“These transfers are fueling Putin’s war machine – this is oil for missiles, oil for artillery and now oil for soldiers”, he says. Hugh Griffithsformer leader of a UN panel responsible for monitoring sanctions against North Korea.
“A million barrels is nothing for a major oil producer like Russia to release, but it is a substantial amount for North Korea to receive”, says Go Myong-hyunsenior researcher at South Korea’s National Security Strategy Institute.
But Penton-Voak is part of the leadership of the Open Source Center and guarantees that “the fact that Russia is now encouraging these ships to visit its ports and load oil shows a new level of contempt for sanctionss”.
“Now we have these autocratic regimes working more and more together to help each other get what they want and ignore the wishes of the international community,” he tells the BBC. It is an “increasingly dangerous” game, and “The last thing you want is for a North Korean tactical nuclear weapon to appear in Iran, for example.”
But there are already those who say that oil is just the “tip of the iceberg”, as the BBC writes. It is estimated that Pyongyang has already sent 16,000 sea containers full of artillery shells and rockets to Moscow, and remains of North Korean ballistic missiles exploded on Ukrainian territory have already been discovered.
It is worth remembering, also the defense celebrated between the two countries that made North Korea to fight alongside the Russians.
At BBC, the South Korean government said it will “respond firmly the violation of UN Security Council resolutions by Russia and North Korea.” But Go Myong-hyun warns: “If we are sending our people to die in a foreign war, a million barrels of oil is not enough reward.”
“I used to think that it was not in Russia’s interests share military technology, but perhaps your calculation has changed. The Russians need these troops and this gives the North Koreans more power”, he further suggests Andrei Lankovan expert on North Korea-Russian relations at Seoul’s Kookmin University.
What other little gifts, then, might the Kremlin be cooking up to send to Kim Jong Un and thank him for all the support he has provided?
