During the six-month period between February
and August, the panel said, North Korea
continued to enhance its nuclear and ballistic
missile programs.
The experts said representatives from three
North Korean entities under U.N. sanctions
— KOMID, Saeng Pil and Namchongang —
continued to operates overseas, including
under diplomatic cover, “attempting to
transfer conventional weapons and expertise
and to procure equipment and technology
for the country’s WMD (weapons of mass
destruction) programs.”
The Munitions Industry Department and
other sanctioned entities also continued to
raise funds for these programs by sending
information technology workers abroad, the
panel said. And the Reconnaissance General
Bureau and other sanctioned bodies, including
the Mansudae Overseas Project Group, “also
engaged in the import of luxury goods and
attempted sale of frozen assets overseas” in
violation of U.N. sanctions.
The experts said they received a report from
the United States and 25 other countries with
imagery and data accusing North Korea of
violating U.N. sanctions by importing far more
than the annual limit of 500,000 barrels of
refined petroleum products in the first four
months of 2019. The U.S. complaint was made
public in June.
The panel said Russia responded that “it would
be premature” for the sanctions committee to
make a conclusive determination and stop such
imports, and China said more evidence and
information was needed to make a judgment.