South AS-Korean Forms Of Illegal Oil Delivery Prevention Task Force To North Korea

Illustration of tankers in the Black Sea. (Wikimedia Commons/Mostafameraji)

JAKARTA - The United States and South Korea this week launched a new task force to prevent North Korea from getting illegal oil, when a stalemate at the UN Security Council raised doubts about the future of international sanctions.

The first meeting of the task force called the Enhanced Disruption Task Force (EDTF) was held in Washington on Tuesday.

The meeting involved more than 30 officials from ministries and agencies in charge of diplomacy, intelligence, sanctions and maritime bans, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The two sides expressed concern over the possibility of Russia providing processed oil to North Korea, discussing ways to suspend illegal cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, the statement added.

"Oil is an important resource for the development of North Korea's nuclear and missile and military posture," the statement said.

Based on UN DK restrictions imposed on North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs, Pyongyang is limited to importing only 4 million barrels of crude oil and 500,000 barrels of processed products per year.

Meanwhile, it is likely that Russia will veto UN resolutions calling for a continuation of the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea, a UN diplomat told Reuters last week.

A UN expert panel monitoring the imposition of sanctions said this month North Korean-flagged tankers may have shipped more than 1.5 million barrels of refined oil products between January 1 and September 15 last year.

Commercial satellite imagery shows North Korean oil tankers, including several sanctioned vessels, have visited Russian ports in recent weeks.

The US-South Korea task force is considering actions that may be taken to disrupt North Korea's oil supply network, including uncovering sanctions evasion activities, establishing unilateral sanctions, and involving the private sector and third parties across the region who are consciously or unintentionally facilitating oil shipments, the US State Department said.

In the future, the task force could target other sanction avoidance areas, including coal sales, the department said in a statement.