Home > National > North Korea

U.S. stresses commitment to combating maritime North Korean sanctions evasion activities

Published: 19 Jul. 2025, 09:47 Updated: 20 Jul. 2025, 14:58

The U.S. Department of State building in Washington [YONHAP]

The United States on Friday reaffirmed its commitment to addressing maritime activities that evade sanctions against North Korea as it co-hosted a maritime security conference in Ivory Coast this week.

The State Department reiterated the commitment after it, the Maritime Organization of West and Central Africa and Ivory Coast's Ministry of Transport co-hosted the Global Maritime Security and Sanctions Enforcement Conference in Abidjan on Wednesday and Thursday.

The conference brought together global maritime industry leaders from 25 countries to strengthen due diligence practices, and enhance enforcement of sanctions to prevent North Korea, Iran and other countries from exploiting commercial maritime supply chains to advance proliferation, according to the department.

“The DPRK circumvents U.S. and UN sanctions through the export of coal and iron ore to generate revenue to support the development of its WMD and ballistic missile programs,” the department said in a media note on the conference. DPRK and WMD are short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and weapons of mass destruction, respectively.

“The United States is committed to combating maritime sanctions evasion activities and illicit maritime trade,” it added.

The department also accused Iran of continuing to use the commercial shipping industry to transport proliferation-related items and export oil to generate revenue for its global “malign” activities.

The conference was designed to share challenges, lessons learned and best practices to improve U.S. sanctions enforcement globally, prevent illicit maritime activity that threatens U.S. interests and ultimately increase global maritime security, it said.

Yonhap