Japan releases photos of N. Korea’s suspected transfer at sea

Japan releases photos of N. Korea’s suspected transfer at sea. February. 22, 2018 07:49. by Young-A Soh sya@donga.com.
The Japanese government has released photographs that it claims showed a ship-to-ship transfer on the high seas in violation of the U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

According to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday, the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s PC-3 surveillance plane and an escort ship saw a North Korean-flagged tanker alongside a smaller ship on last Friday on international waters in the East China Sea. Japan’s Ministry of Defense posted the photos on its Internet homepage on Tuesday.

The North Korean tanker, which Japan identified as the Yu Jong 2, was detected together with the other vessel, which was of unknown nationality but had "Min Ning De You 078" written in Chinese on its bow, on the waters about 250 kilometers off Shanghai, China. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the latter vessel appeared to be an oil tanker from Ningde City, Fujian Province, China.

The Japanese ministry said that the two vessels had hoses connected to each other, stressing it “strongly suspected” that they had conducted ship-to-ship transfers banned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Tokyo reported the UNSC of the findings.