Seoul: Commercial vessel activity at North Korea's ports has surged fivefold since 2019, a report said Tuesday, raising fresh suspicions of illegal coal trading.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the report, co-published by the Seoul-based Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and British research group Data Desk, tracked vessels longer than 80 meters at North Korea's five major ports - Nampho, Chongjin, Wonsan, Rason, and Kimchaek. Recorded activity climbed to 3,756 cases last year, up from 783 in 2019.
Nampho, identified as North Korea's largest coal export hub, observed the sharpest rise with more than 3,000 cases last year, compared to 554 in 2019. The findings were based on satellite imagery of the ports combined with AIS data, the digital location signals sent by ships.
One key detail in the report highlights that only between 14 and 33 percent of vessels visible in satellite photos appeared in AIS records, indicating a significant number of ships may be deliberately going dark to evade detection. Despite the United Nations banning North Korea's coal exports outright since the passing of Resolution 2371 in 2017, the trade seems to persist, as claimed by the report.
The surge is particularly notable among vessels already under U.N. sanctions, with cases involving such ships reaching 91 last year, the highest in 11 years. This spike is traced back to the collapse of U.N. oversight following Russia's veto on the renewal of the Security Council panel monitoring North Korea's sanctions violations in 2024. The report also attributes this loophole to increased cooperation among Pyongyang, Beijing, and Moscow.
A significant signal is North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent call to modernize the coal industry, suggesting Pyongyang sees potential for expansion. At a key party meeting last week, coal was named as a strategic pillar of the economy, with a call for a nationwide overhaul of the sector and its mining communities. Kim described ending the industry's "centuries-old backwardness" as a matter of "weighty significance."