RAPIDLY expanding military, political and economic co-operation between North Korea and Russia has significantly increased the volume of maritime trade between the two countries, according to a report by 11 countries, including the US and Japan.

Regular shipments of arms and military equipment are being facilitated via a network of front companies, while ships with no flag or fake flags continue to “brazenly” violate UN resolutions by exporting iron ore and coal to China, and North Korean tankers continue to import Russian oil.

A core fleet of four Russia-flagged general cargo vessels have undertaken at least 64 voyages between the North Korean port of Rajin and Russia’s Far Eastern ports of Dunay and Vostochnyy since September 2023, the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team said in the report.

The MSMT report is the first major output by the group of 11 states, which was established after Russia forced the disbandment of a previous UN panel of experts that monitored the implementation of sanctions against North Korea.

The shipments were estimated to have delivered 4.2m-5.8m munitions from North Korea to Russia between August 2023 and March 2025, including rocket launchers, vehicles, self-propelled guns and other types of heavy artillery; and at least 100 ballistic missiles.

In return, Russia provided North Korea with various valuable pieces of weaponry and technology, including air defence equipment, anti-aircraft missiles, electronic warfare systems and refined oil, the report said.

While much of the illicit maritime trade had been regularly identified by the previous UN Panel of Security Experts, this latest reports provides evidence the volume and velocity of shipments has increased since the panel was disbanded by Russia’s veto in March 2024.

Arms transfers from North Korea to Russia had been initially conducted by rail. However, to meet Russia’s greater demand for artillery shells, Russian-flagged vessels have increasingly been used as primary method of transport for large-scale shipments of these items.

“The flow of conventional arms and military personnel transferring to Russia for use in Ukraine has increased significantly since the disbandment of the panel, along with the strengthening of the whole DPRK-Russia military-economic relationship” said Aaron Arnold, senior associate fellow and former member of the UN Panel of Experts for DPRK sanctions.

In addition to the flow of arms via regular shipments, at least six foreign-flagged, or fake-flagged, vessels have been observed by the reporting states loading coal and iron ore in North Korean ports and then exporting their cargo to largely Chinese destinations in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

While official UN records show that less than 60% of the permitted annual cap of 500,000 barrels of refined petroleum products had been imported to North Korea last year, the report cited evidence showing more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arrived at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East 43 times between March and October 2024, supplying North Korea with more than 1m barrels of oil. That trend has continued this year, according to the sources that supplied intelligence to the report.

Evidence delivered by the London-based Open Source Centre to the UN Security Council earlier this month detailed 18 recent voyages made by six vessels from North Korean ports, with all but one ending at a Chinese port.

The research, which is cited by the MSMT report, concluded that North Korea continues “large scale” iron ore and coal exports to China, “to generate tens of millions of dollars ultimately funnelled towards Pyongyang’s prohibited weapons programmes”.

While the vast majority of these trades continue to take place with either no AIS signal or a spoofed signal to cover its tracks, at least one of the vessels passed through European waters heading to Russia.

The Russian-flagged Maia- 1 (IMO: 9358010), which was sanctioned by the US and EU for transporting arms from North Korea, set off from Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East in January, before picking up cargo at a port near Shanghai.

According to the Open Source Centre, large items were then loaded on to the ship when it was at the Zhangjiagang Equipment Port between January 11 and 16. The facility has been linked to efforts to evade sanctions on the supply of equipment to Russia’s liquefied natural gas projects.

Satellite imagery gathered by the OSC showed the vessel being loaded with objects that were then covered in tarpaulins for the journey. Maia-1 then arrived in Ust-Luga on March 24 before returning through EU waters to arrive in Mumbai last week.

While the MSMT report concludes with the recommendation that such voyages should be targeted by the Un Security Council and facilitating flags should be encouraged not to support North Korean trades, experts behind the report concede that it comes with limited influence.

The US, however, continues to push for a more aggressive stance and is calling for UN sanctions against vessels identified as taking part in circumvention of United Nations resolutions to combat North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Camille Shea said the Security Council would continue to highlight sanctions violations despite Russia’s veto last year of the mandate of the panel of experts that monitored such violations on behalf of the UN’s 1718 Committee on North Korea.

“It is clear from evidence presented that Russia is cynically obstructing the council on DPRK sanctions implementation in order to try to escape reproach for its own violations,” she said speaking at the security council meeting earlier this month.

“Meanwhile, China insists that it fully implements the council’s resolutions, but we have just seen evidence of Chinese authorities looking the other way as PRC companies import DPRK coal and iron ore in violation of this council’s resolutions.”

The US plans to submit a request for UN sanctions against all vessels engaged illicit North Korea trades.