WASHINGTON.- China is providing mooring at one of its ports to a US-sanctioned Russian cargo ship implicated in North Korean arms transfers to Russiaaccording to satellite images obtained by the Reuters agency, while US concerns grow about Beijing’s support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The British think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said the Russian ship Angarawhich since August 2023 has moved thousands of containers believed to contain North Korean munitions to Russian ports, has been docked at a Chinese shipyard in the eastern province of Zhejiang since February.
The presence of the ship in the Chinese port underlines the challenges facing the United States and its allies as they try to cut off military and economic support to Russia.
With Ukraine under renewed Russian attack and running out of ammunition, U.S. officials have issued increasingly harsh warnings about what they say is China’s help in rebuilding the Russian military after its early setbacks in the Ukraine war.
That support is expected to top the agenda this week when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Beijing.
The State Department’s No. 2 diplomat, Kurt Campbell, said this month that Washington would not “sit back” if Beijing increased its support for Moscow.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said he was aware of “credible, open-source reports” that The Angara is currently docked in a Chinese port and he had raised the issue with the Chinese authorities.
“We call on all member states to comply with their obligations under UNSCR 2397,” the official said, referring to a United Nations resolution to restrict trade with North Korea and require U.N. states to cancel the registration of any vessel involved in illegal activities.
“When Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with his counterparts from the People’s Republic of China this week, he will address a number of concerns, including Russia’s war against Ukraine and ties between Russia and North Korea”said the spokesperson.
Satellite images that RUSI obtained in recent months from companies such as Planet Labs PBC, a San Francisco-based Earth imaging firm, showed the Angara docked at the Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard in Zhejiang, which its website says is China’s largest private ship repair company.
The ship was identified by its unique automatic identification system (AIS) transponder that had been briefly activated, likely for security reasons, while it was sailing through a busy stretch of the Korea Strait en route to China.
RUSI said that before arriving in China on February 9, apparently for repairs or maintenance, The Angara had been docked in North Korean and Russian ports in January with its transponder turned off. It again stopped broadcasting shortly after arriving in China.
Eleven days trip to Russia
The ship, sanctioned by the United States in May 2022, had made at least 11 deliveries between the North Korean port of Rajin and Russian ports since August 2023according to RUSI, which has been tracking their movements as part of a project to use open source data to monitor North Korea’s sanctions evasion.
China’s embassy in Washington said it was not aware of details related to Angara, but that China “always opposes unilateral sanctions and far-reaching jurisdiction that have no basis in international law or mandate of the Security Council.”
China’s Foreign Ministry also said it had no information on the matter.
The United States and dozens of other countries said earlier this year that North Korea’s arms transfers to Russia “flagrantly” violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Reuters Agency