Satellite images indicate that North Korea is building more oil tanks at the port of Nampo. The images also seem to show North Korean ships engaging in illegal transfers of oil.
In a recent review of Maxar satellite images of Nampo, an important trading port on North Korea’s west coast, Daily NK found that more storage facilities are being built around the wharf.
There used to be a total of 35 tanks for storing fuel at Nampo, including 10 on the right side of the Samhwa Stream and 25 on the left side. According to an image taken by the WorldView-2 satellite on May 14, one more tank has been built and two more are under construction.
Four more tanks are likely to be built in a round lot that is presumably intended for fuel storage, which would bring the total number of oil tanks at Nampo to 42.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 2397 restricts North Korea to yearly imports of four million barrels of crude oil and half a million barrels of refined oil. But North Korea has been bringing in fuel through illegal ship-to-ship transfers and has continued to expand the facilities needed to store that oil.
Daily NK reported on May 20 that North Korea has been expanding the fuel supply for naval units at the ports of Nampo and Rason by shipping in large amounts of oil from China and Russia and that it has been building more oil tanks at Nampo since January.
Satellite images also showed what appeared to be North Korea engaging in an illegal ship-to-ship transfer of oil in order to avoid international monitoring. An image captured on May 14 by the WorldView-2 satellite shows four vessels clustered near Sok Island, with two of the ships side by side.
Sok Island is located about 30 kilometers southwest of Nampo. North Korea appears to use the waters around this island for illegal transfers of oil. In fact, that very island was identified by the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea as a place where those illegal transfers take place.
North Korea also appears to be carrying out nighttime work around the oil tanks at Nampo. Analysis of an image taken at 1:30 AM on May 20 shows that the wharf where the oil tanks are clustered was illuminated in the early morning hours. Late-night illumination was also detected at the container terminal, which is about six kilometers away.
That suggests that work is being deliberately delayed until nighttime, raising the possibility that oil from the ships is being moved to the tanks after dark.
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