Identifies, Tracks and Reports Vessels Apparently Breaking Sanctions

HMS RICHMOND, a Type 23 frigate detached from the Royal Navy’s Carrier Strike Group in the Indo-Pacific, conducted operations in the East China Sea earlier this month to support the UN’s sanctions, adopted in 2017, targeting North Korea’s strategic weapons and ballistic missile programmes, the MoD revealed on 26 September.

The sanction ban the supply of fuel or refined petroleum products to North Korea. HMS RICHMOND captured evidence of ships apparently breaching the sanctions and, collected updated intelligence on other ships of interest, and provided video and photographic evidence to the UN Enforcement Coordination Cell. The operations mark the first occasion since 2019 that a Royal Navy ship has supported UN sanctions monitoring and enforcement activity.

“North Korea’s ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction destabilises the region and poses a threat to the world […] HMS RICHMOND’s deployment in the East China Sea identified ships acting in suspected breach of UN sanctions and tracked vessels which had previously not been flagged to the Enforcement Coordination Cell,” stated British Defence Minister, Ben Wallace.