China Harbors Russian North Korea Arms Ship, Images Show

A major Chinese shipyard has for two months granted safe haven to a cargo ship with suspected involvement in the North Korea-Russia arms trade, satellite imagery suggests.

Russia-flagged vessel the Angara is believed to have ferried thousands of containers full of North Korean munitions in at least 11 transits between North Korea’s port of Rajin and Russian ports from August 2023 to February this year, British think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told Reuters.

It is one of four U.S.-sanctioned ships believed to have transported the North Korean weapons that ended up being used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. The report comes amid top U.S. diplomat Antony Blinken’s visit to China. He is pressing Beijing to cease exports that are helping Russia rebuild its military industrial base.

Citing satellite imagery from San Francisco-based Planet Labs and other imaging companies, RUSI said the Angara has been docked at Zhejiang province’s Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard since February. The firm claims to be China’s largest private ship-repairing company, suggesting the Russian ship has undergone maintenance during its extended stay.

Zhoushan Xinya Shipyard Co. didn’t immediately respond to a written request for comment.

The ship was still there as of Friday, according to open-source ship tracking data based on its automatic identification system (AIS), which broadcasts the ship’s position to other vessels and port authorities.

In January, the ship’s AIS remained off while anchored in Russia and North Korea, RUSI said, apparently to avoid detection.

On its way to Zhejiang, the ship’s crew temporarily then switched on the transponder during a highly trafficked section of the Korea Strait, likely to avoid collisions, before turning it off again after reaching the Chinese port.

Though the contents of the cargo delivered to Russia by the Angara—and fellow cargo ships the Maia, Angara, and Maria—have not been confirmed, the transits coincided with reports last year that Russia was using North Korea-made ballistic missiles in Ukraine.

“If [China] lets [the Angara] sail out of port uninspected and newly repaired, then it shows China likely won’t take any action on these Russian vessels,” RUSI research fellow Joseph Byrne told Reuters.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik estimated Pyonyang had shipped 3 million 152-millimeter artillery shells by late February.

Washington has been increasingly seeking to clamp down on perceived Chinese support for Moscow as Ukraine struggles with supply shortages amid continued Russian offensives.

To this end, U.S. secondary sanctions have found success by discouraging Chinese banks from processing Russian payments for Chinese goods subject to these sanctions.

China has repeatedly said it opposes “unilateral sanctions” and “long-arm jurisdiction.” Beijing also maintains it is a neutral party, though it has never condemned Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Chinese trade continues to help prop up Russia’s isolated economy, and the two neighbors have continued bilateral military exercises.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. State Department, the North Korean embassy in Beijing, and the Russian foreign embassy via written request for comment.