BEIJING: Chinese exports of most oil and fuel products to North Korea remained at zero in December with the exception of a small shipment of jet fuel, according to trade figures seen by Channel News Asia. The minimal shipments mark the third consecutive month in which Beijing has reported no gasoline or diesel exports to the DPRK. North Korea has no domestic crude oil production and is reliant on both China and Russia for its crude and refined oil needs. Member states are also prohibited from exporting jet fuel to North Korea under UN resolutions passed in 2016, though the measures contain an allowance to allow the DPRK’s commercial airliners to refuel abroad. The limited fuel exports follow UN resolutions passed in December which restricted member states from sending oil products to the DPRK, though did not ban the trade entirely suggesting that China’s reported cut back goes beyond the scope of the UN’s measures. Earlier reports from NK Pro also showed that China began truncating its fuel exports to the DPRK from around the middle of 2017, even as most of the North’s oil tankers disappeared from international tracking systems. But recent UN and U.S. designations and photographs of North Korean oil tankers allegedly transferring fuel products at sea could cast doubt on Beijing’s trade figures. Both the UN and Washington blacklisted a North Korean oil tanker for apparently receiving fuel products directly from another tanker, with Chinese nationals tied to weapon smuggling and North Korean sanctions evasion was also linked to the practice. The same sanctioned ship was also photographed more recently by the Japanese military possibly conducting another illegal transfer at sea, though the source of the oil is not yet known. According to the NK Pro ship tracker, several of North Korea’s oil tankers started broadcasting their positions again recently when sailing in international waters, though in most cases do not make their destinations apparent. The disappearance of refined products from China’s monthly trade reports is not the first time Beijing may have omitted oil exports to North Korea from its export data.
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