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It has been confirmed that the missile transporter-erector-launchers (TELs) North Korea showed off at a military parade in Pyongyang in April 2012 were imported from China in contravention of UN sanctions. The vehicles were allegedly imported as “lumber transporters.”
According to the latest report from a UN panel established to oversee the North Korea sanctions regime, Rim Mok General Trading Company, an affiliate of the North Korean Ministry of Forestry, made the contract to buy the vehicles, which were worth approximately $4.9 million. The model WS51200 vehicles were supplied by Hubei Sanjiang Space Wanshan Special Vehicle Co., which is wholly owned by the Chinese state.
North Korea reportedly stated that the vehicles would be used for “transporting timbers in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.” However, the report states that the vehicles on show during the final third of the military parade on the anniversary of Kim Il Sung’s birth on April 15th, 2012 match the exterior design of the exported vehicles.
“On the basis of the information currently available, the panel considers it most likely that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea deliberately breached the end user guarantee that it officially provided to Wuhan and converted the WS51200 trucks into transporter-erector-launchers,” the report concludes.
