Some of North Korean ships separately blacklisted by the United States in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests earlier this year have been spotted sailing, a U.S.-based media report showed Saturday.
Victory 2, in particular, was detected leaving Nampo port of North Korea on Thursday afternoon and sailing westwards, according to the Washington-based Voice of America (VOA), citing traffic information filed by Marine Traffic, an online vessel tracking program.
The vessel was blacklisted by the U.S. along with 11 other ships in mid-March in addition to 27 other vessels that were sanctioned under the United Nations Security Council resolution which was adopted to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear and long-range missile tests in January and February.
Victory 2 is seen one of the most actively sailing ships of the sanctioned as the report said that she has been spotted entering and leaving foreign ports eight times including those in China over the past three months.
The report said that Victory 2 is suspected of having put a Japanese port as its fake destination on the automatic identification system and actually sailing towards Nampo after departing from China on June 9.
Not specifying its exact number, the report noted that some vessels of the sanctioned including JH86 and Jin Teng have entered and left ports outside of the North on about 20 occasions during the three-month period.(Yonhap)
