Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs finally reported their secret detection of a naval vessel with suspected Chinese affliction partaking in the illegal transfer of goods and commodities with a North Korean ship. The entire affair had been witnessed by a Japanese P-3 maritime patrol plane which detected the two vessels conjoined by hoses 350 km off the coast of Shanghai on the 19th of May, 2018.
In reference to this discovery, spokesmen from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have elaborated to the press that after thorough analyses and assessments, Japan had reported to the United Nations about this unscheduled naval interaction between the two countries, expecting steps to be taken against the scenario which blatantly disregarded the clause prohibiting ship-to-ship transfers with North Korea in the United Nations Security Council Resolutions. During April 2018, the UNSC had blacklisted many companies, 5 of them based in China, who had sent ships to smuggle oil and coal into North Korea, and issued a global port ban against them using this clause.
The People’s Republic of China had repeatedly insisted upon enforcing UN-approved sanctions against North Korea and promised punishment to any Chinese company which was caught breaking the sanctions. Even so, Japan’s decision to direct the suspicion complaint towards the UN is expected to have been provoked by the news of former North Korea head of military intelligence, Kim Yong Chol, heading to the US to try and salvage the upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. China’s reaction to this development in the issue has not been publicized as of yet. However, Japan continues to urge the US and the other P5 + 1 powers to follow the UN’s decision to maintain strict sanctions against North Korea until its complete denuclearization was confirmed.